Sentinel
by SirArthurNudge
Summary: Only two people had reached the rank of Sentinel under Elder Maxson - the current holder being the Sole Survivor of Vault 111. Now he must find his newly re-emerged predecessor before the Brotherhood of Steel falls apart from divisions within.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Prologue

The old battered door of the tavern slammed open with a bang that roused even the most inebriated of the clientele.

The barkeep – an older man with wizened skin and black hair greying at the temples – squinted desperately to see the newcomer in the dazzling light.

A thick cloak with it's heavy hood kept that information from him. The new arrival shut the door with less force as they'd opened it before striding unconcernedly to the bar.

He'd seen many walks over the years – from trembling novices to experienced raiders seeking oblivion in his booze – but this one was different. Whoever it was walked through the mingled crowd of lowlifes and scum with no hesitation at all.

Each step was deliberate, almost thoughtfully placed before the other.

The hood still stopped any identification but he guessed this was a woman from the graceful hip sway that the cloak could not hide.

"What can I get ya?" he asked shortly after the hooded woman reached his bar.

"Water. Pure," was the terse reply from a softer voice that confirmed his suspicions of this new arrival being female.

"Take a seat."

A fistful of caps landed on the scoured wooden top of the bar just as he handed over the battered plastic bottle containing the best water he had.

She'd barely taken a sip when the tavern front opened again, flooding the dark and gloom with blinding light of day.

"I... I need to hire someone!"

The barkeep frowned. "What do you mean, lad?"

The young lanky boy with frizzy red hair and freckles with dirt caked clothes stepped forward nervously.

"It's my dad. He's gotten taken by raiders! I need someone to save him! I got caps!"

A couple of lowlifes the barkeep knew from prior bad experiences stood up from the far corner.

He was about to give the boy a quiet warning - knowing as he did that they'd sooner kill the lad in a quiet spot outside and take his caps rather than take on a raider group - when the newcomer stood up.

"We'll talk outside, boy," she said quietly before knocking back the water.

The hooded woman tossed the barkeep the now empty bottle before turning on her heel and heading for the kid.

He watched as the other and more obviously dangerous pair followed in their wake.

"Just once I'd like to be wrong," he mumbled.

* * *

"What is your name?"

"John!" the young man half-squeaked as the hooded figure pushed him out the door.

"Well, John, you've made a very big mistake. You should never announce the contents of your pockets to anyone. An unforgiving lesson but I can correct this for you. Hide behind that junk. Do not move until I say so."

"But my dad-"

"Later. Right now I need to deal with this. Go."

John quickly hurried over the distant pile of scrap metal the hooded woman had directed him to, just diving behind it when the tavern door opened and two mercs emerged.

"Where's the boy?" one of the pair asked.

The hooded woman stood resolutely in front of the heavily armed men with no fear. "I'm afraid you've picked the wrong fight. I suggest moving on."

"Ha! Do you hear this- ekkk!"

The woman moved so fast that neither man could react as the sharpened blade sliced first through the talking man's throat before lodging itself in the other's forehead.

Both fell to the ground, blood pouring out and soaking into the soil, changing it from the sandy gold colour into a dark red where they lay slumped over.

The hooded woman removed her knife as jutted out from the second man's skull before wiping the blade clean of blood on his shirt.

"You can come out," she shouted over as she went through the men's pockets. Finding a sizeable number of caps within meant this wasn't a wasted endeavor after all.

"Holy... " John stuttered before puking his guts up a short distance away. Once he finished retching, the young man glanced sheepishly at the hooded woman who arrived to his side.

"Sorry. Never... never seen anyone die before. At least not like that."

"Your father was clearly a good man and clever if he's kept that from you in the wastes. Now, tell me about what happened to him."

John motioned her to follow him to a nearby hill over which you could see the ruins of New York.

"They took him in there," he whispered.

Even from this distance, you could make out the horrible screams and howls of the tortured souls that still lived in that pit.

The woman pulled down her hood, revealing shoulder length blonde hair hapazardly tied back with a strip of leather. John thought she was pretty looking although she had a wicked looking scar that ran through the eyebrow and over her right eye that matched her left with it's piercing blue colour.

"John, I can't guarantee that he'll live or even that he lives right now."

"I know. But you can at least try.. right? I have caps..."

"Keep them. Where is your homestead?"

"Just over that hill!"

"Take me there. I'll need more information about your father before I go."

"Sure!" John hurried a few steps forward before he stalled and turned back to face her. "I didn't catch your name."

"No one. I'm no one, John."

* * *

His father was returned alive and well a few weeks later with a few hundred caps weighing down his pockets.

He arrived home alone but told his family of the woman who'd saved him and how they'd fought their way out from the hell that was post apocalyptic New York.

The caps was his share from that ordeal.

Well, a little more than his fair share in all honesty but the woman, this "no one", had insisted.

She was heading north, to the Commonwealth. His father said she had an accent and a way of talking he recognized. John had been spellbound as his father spoke of the Capital wasteland and the hardy folks who survived there.

"She was one of them?" he'd asked breathlessly.

"No. I think she was there though. She had that Commonwealth look about her but spoke like a Capital wastelander."

"Did she say anything else?"

His father had smiled. "She wanted me to keep you safe. Said you were a good kid. Said we need more good people out here. Gotta take care of each other."

"Oh," he'd murmured back with a faint red blush.

Months later John realized why she'd never said who she was. It was the day that the men in heavy metal suits with the strange insignia had arrived to his small home and asked so many questions that he'd struggled to keep track of them all.

"There's been no one," his father had answered carefully to them.

"The Brotherhood of Steel will pay handsomely for any information in this case. If you remember anything find us. We will be in the area for another two days."

After they'd left, John had approached his father who sat quietly watching the sun set.

"They were looking for her."

"I know."

"You lied."

His father sighed. "No. I didn't. I told them there'd been no one. Not my problem if they don't press."

John sank down on the seat beside him. "I wonder if she found what she was looking for. I hope she's safe at least."

"... Did she find her Jericho..." came the mumbled reply.

"Huh?"

His father's gaze was locked on the distant horizon. "Nothing, John. Nothing."

* * *

"Sir..."

Maxson glanced over his shoulder at the breathless Danse.

"Paladin. What news from the scouts?"

"No sign, Arthur."

Maxson returned his heavy stare back to the flickering terminal screen.

"Continue the search. She'll make for the Commonwealth. I know it."

Danse nodded. "She's on foot and still eluding us. I mean if we haven't found her by now, our chances of locating her at all are slim."

"Have you anything more to add, Paladin?"

"... no."

"Then get back to the search. Return if you have news."

"But-"

"GET OUT!" Maxson roared without turning away from the terminal he was pouring through.

He registered Danse's leaving only by the noise of the door opening and closing followed by the brief gust of cold air that hit his back.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Signal

Danse looked over his X-01 armor one last time for anything that needed fixing.

He'd taken great pains to repair and polish it as much he could using skills he'd picked up from watching Ingram at work.

The thought of the frequently grumpy but undeniably brilliant woman with hair the color of fire caused him to come to a complete stop.

He missed them. He missed the Brotherhood more than he could ever say. Danse would always be one of them in his heart even if now he was to be shot on sight.

After a brief glance over his work, the synth sank to the ground and leaned back against the weathered cut stone of the high outer walls.

The Castle was a nice enough place, better than where he'd originally intended on spending his days. Nate had put a stop to that almost immediately once Maxson had departed and instead sent him to live among the Minutemen. He still hid from his brothers from time to time in order to stop any senseless bloodshed but now had a semblance of a life again.

It had some perks, one of which was Haylen who'd often came to see him under the guise of liaising with the Minutemen.

He knew that Arthur would never forgive him. Would never believe him.

Not that it mattered now. Although Danse had much left to be proud of within the Brotherhood. The young soldiers who'd been under his care were now all flourishing in the aftermath of the Institute's defeat. He'd even witnessed Nate rise to the exalted position of Sentinel, something he thought Arthur would never allow happen again. Not after...

Danse shook his head in a vain attempt to free himself of the intrusive thoughts.

It served no good to think of her. He remembered the tortured young man who had replaced the normal controlled Maxson in the months following her departure. Even when he was finally assigned the task to discover the source of the anomalies in the Commonwealth, Arthur couldn't let the opportunity go by even though much time had passed. He'd called Danse aside and gave him an order that was solely for his ears. He was to see if she still lived.

Danse had tried and yet found no sign of her. She was as gone as she had been three years before. Shortly after the Prwyden had arrived, Maxson had again talked to him in private. He remembered the brief flicker of pain on Arthur's face as he told him of the nothingness he'd found.

Perhaps that was why he appointed Nate as Sentinel. Maybe Maxson finally accepted that she was gone and never going to return to at least explain why she did those terrible things before fleeing.

* * *

Thoughts of his estranged family led naturally to Nate who'd nonchalantly informed Danse the day before of a raid planned against a Super Mutant holdout. Leaving his power armor in the secure grip of the docking rig, Danse meandered to his small corner of the Castle and the equipment he'd set up there. He knew most of the frequencies the Brotherhood used and often would sit and listen, cheering them on from a distance.

A brief scramble through the myriad frequencies led to the right channel. He sat back and listened to the voices of soldiers he knew and respected all playing their part.

Idly, he started to drift his fingers across the tuner. He hadn't thought of that particular frequency in a long time. What harm in just checking he thought before briskly typing in some familiar numbers. Danse unconsciously held his breath and listened.

Static. The almost comforting hiss of nothingness. That held breath escaped it's confinement as the tension left his body. It was what had he expected he mused. Danse reached over to set the channel back when there came a beep. His hand stopped in the air, shaking as another beep rang out.

He shot out of his chair so fast he nearly knocked the entire table he sat at over.

The beeps kept coming. Faint and with long uneasy silences in-between but it was there.  
Danse rattled through the possibilities. Sure it might be someone else but unlikely. She'd always used the most obscure range so as not to be confused among the more heavily trafficked routes.

He needed to go investigate this and now.

Thoughts of the firefight were pushed aside as Danse ran back to his gear and made ready to go. He couldn't wait for his friends. He'd do this alone. One last mission for the Brotherhood.

* * *

"If you don't mind me saying, sir, but you appear a little worse for wear."

"Thanks, Codsworth. I feel it too," Nate chuckled as he walked slowly over the wooden bridge towards the settlement of Sanctuary with his ever loyal robot at his side.

The fight had been tough but thankfully they made it through with minimal causalities. Nate had been used to death long before the Great War. What happened in the Vault and afterwards to his family... well, it tends to change a man. Nate tried his best to help everybody but sometimes you need to place the greater good above all else. Shaun had inherited that streak too but applied it in a different manner than his father did which led only to what happened a few months ago. Sometimes the explosion that tore apart the old CIT and the underground monolith of the Institute was all that Nate dreamed of. The light and the heat burning away what had become of his family.

"Would you like to take a nap, sir? I've changed the linens myself prior to departure."

Nate rolled his shoulders, wincing at the cracks as his bones and ligaments snapped into their proper places.

"You know what... I think I will."

"Splendid, sir! I shall inform the other inhabitants that you are not to be disturbed and-"

They both stopped as the music stopped from Radio Freedom that was playing from Nate's Pipboy and the now familiar deep voice of the host echoed out.

"This is a message for the General. Please return to the Castle as soon as you can."

Nate sighed. "I think you can hold off on that one, Codsworth. Stay here for now. I'll be back hopefully by tomorrow."

He picked up his small bag with caps, stared regretfully at how close he was to rest before he started his journey southeast.

* * *

"He left a few hours ago, General. No word since. Wouldn't let any of us join him."

"Shit. What direction did he head off in?" Nate quickly replied as he finally put his bags down.

The young Minutemen recruit in front of him pointed southwest. "I saw him going in the direction of that old high school east of here. Matt was on patrol near University Point and spotted him there too. Danse mentioned something about tracking a signal."

"Huh... thanks."

Nate pondered for moment before he quickly headed to Danse's chosen quarters. He'd helped set the damn thing up for him, finding bits of equipment all over the Commonwealth while Danse kept himself restricted to the Castle and its surrounds.

He was still angry at Maxson over the whole thing with Danse but in a way he respected the decision the younger man had made. He stuck to his ideals and what had happened with Danse was a betrayal in a way. Not consciously made – at least by Danse – but one from within the Elder's inner circle. Not something Maxson would forgive but he'd actually allowed his former comrade his life albeit with conditions. That was something at least.

A brief search through Danse's regimentally neat quarters revealed no clues. Nate turned his attention to the receiver on the old table. The last frequency was still loaded and he quickly turned his Pipboy to the same.

The now familiar beeps of a locator beacon started to chirp rhythmically.

"Right. That's a start at least," he mumbled to himself before he headed out on the same trail that Danse obviously followed.

* * *

It was wet and miserable as another thunderstorm rolled in.

Nate kept up a constant jog just to keep his fingers and toes from freezing off. Rain was as least better than the horrible radiation storms that blew in from the Glowing Sea from time to time. That was something he doubted he'd ever get used to.

The beeps led him past Quincy, even past Murkwater until he reached the railroad not far from Somerville. Finally he spotted Danse in his bulky X-01 armor crouched low near an abandoned rusting car.

"Danse!"

His friend immediately waved at him to come over to him and fast. Nate sprinted across the distance before he slid into position behind the car.

"What's the situation?" he gasped out between pants.

"Vertibirds," Danse said simply. "And not the Brotherhood's."

Nate frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Look over there. See for yourself."

Nate peered over the hood of the car and spotted at last what Danse was observing. Two Vertibirds on the ground with an insignia that he didn't recognize. They were surrounded by eight or so heavily armored soldiers decked in a livery that wasn't familiar but, from the way Danse was tensed up beside him, his friend clearly know who it belonged to.  
"Who are they?"

"Enclave."

"Who?"

Danse shifted his position a little to get a better view. "I'll have to explain later. Just know they're after the same thing I am."

"The locator beacon."

Danse frowned at Nate. "How did you-"

"I checked your quarters, Danse. The guys were worried that you'd taken off on your own. Especially with the Brotherhood stepping up patrols."

"You should be all more worried about that," Danse replied, gesturing to the group they were observing. "They've searched every damn pile of junk between here to the Somerville Place. Still haven't found who they're looking for."

Nate popped his head up once more and scanned over the soldiers. "Tesla power armor?"

"I've tapped their communications. Take a listen."

His Pipboy hissed and grumbled before starting to spill out myriad voices.

"-no sign yet."

"Well, keep searching. Colonel West wants that kid back in the cells and we've got barely an hour left before those jokes arrive to stop us."

"SIR! I think I found him!"

Nate and Danse glanced at each other.

"We need to stop them! Are you ready, solider?" his friend said quickly.

"As I'll ever be!" Nate replied before they both launched themselves into the fight.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sundered

"Who the hell are these guys?!"

Captain Jones ducked his head back into the dismal cover of the old rusting car that was half submerged in soil before shouting out, "Who fucking cares!? I want 'em dead! Tactics, boys! Jessop and Donnelly, move right! Flank 'em! Bishop and Simm, the same only go left! Watson, get the kid and evac with one of the Vertibirds. Don't wait for us! The mission's more important! The rest of you lot are with me!"

After barking out his orders, their captain led the way forward under the heavy fire that Danse in particular was aiming their way. Nate was rushing from cover to cover, taking potshots as he moved while trying to spot the soldier who'd claimed to have found the source of the emergency beacon.

"Got him!" he shouted back at Danse who snapped out a reply rapidly, "Keep on his tail! I'll handle this lot. Do not let him escape us! We need what they're after!"

Nate spotted a break in the shots and while Danse fired off some more heavy rounds he made a desperate run after the lone Enclave soldier heading for an small depression in the earth half filled with dank water.

Both Nate and the unaware solider hit the deck as one of the Vertibirds exploded.

Danse had concentrated his fire at it's most vulnerable spot, a tactic he'd seen taken against the Brotherhood often. Shrapnel flew in every direction with a particularly jagged piece skimming Nate's cheek and leaving a very fine line that started to seep blood.

With his ears ringing and blurred vision, Nate got back to his feet and witnessed the second and last Vertibird erupt in flames to the angry shouts of the enemy whose route out of this would now have to be on foot.

When Nate finally glanced to his target, he spotted that the soldier, this Watson, had found his target.

With his still bleary vision, all Nate could make out was the small body that was dragged kicking and screaming out from an empty rusting barrel and held up by the thin leg they'd been caught by.

Nate tackled the Enclave soldier by surprise as he charged forward and hit him hard, knocking even the breath from his lungs.

The kid hit the floor and ran bawling for his hiding place. Nate finished the job with a hard punch to the stunned Watson.

* * *

"Fuck..." he hissed before struggling over to the barrel and the shivering child within.

Nate peered in and frowned. "Hey cutie. It's alright. I'm here to help."

He gave a tight smile to the sniffling child who peered back with wide terrified eyes.

"Danse? I got the kid. And it's really a kid. Just a toddler. Can't be more than two I'd guess. Fuck me... they were hunting a little boy. Danse, can you read?"

"... I hear you. One last order, soldier. Get him to the Prydwen. Tell Arthur... tell him that we found the kid at the source of the emergency beacon. Give him the frequency. He'll know what I mean."

"Wait... I can't leave you behind!"

"I got these! Go, soldier! Run! Don't stop until that boy is among the Brotherhood. Don't worry bout me. We'll see each other again."

Nate hovered anxiously, caught between going back or running as Danse asked when the little boy with wide blue eyes started to cry again having caught sight of the two Enclave soldiers advancing on their position. They had spotted their prone friend on the ground and rapidly changed course.

"Fuck! Safe alive, Danse!" Nate shouted before quickly grabbing the child and taking off fast. Alone he'd stay but with the kid in his arms... he just had to hope that Danse was as good as he always thought he was.

Mid run and with the terrified child in his arms, Nate hit his stealth-boy and disappeared.

He didn't stop running until he'd finally reached the relative safety of the new settlement at Murkwater.

The kid had stopped crying a few minutes into their escape to Nate's surprise. His rescuer sank down on the nearest bench to recover his stamina and put the boy back on his feet to take a good look at him.

"You need a haircut," Nate chuckled as he took in the mop of thick curly dark blonde hair on his head that tumbled down to his shoulders. The child didn't seem to know what to make of it all and hovered uncertainly, pulling at his own ears in a nervous habit.

"You guys need some food?"

Nate glanced up at one of the many settlers who'd joined this new small colony he'd made.

"Water would be great. Maybe some mutfruit for this little guy if you have it."

"You got it. Be right over."

Nate turned his gaze to the child who'd pushed closer to him when the settler had arrived and now was pressed against his leg.

"Don't worry, cutie. Short stop here and then I'll call for a pick up. You'll love the Vertibirds we got."

* * *

Jones snorted, rifle pointed at Danse who hissed as he pressed his shoulder's bullet-wound closed.

After Nate had disappeared, the Enclave squad now enraged at losing their target had turned that fury on Danse.

He held out impressively long, killing two and maiming another before a lucky shot clipped his shoulder and left him vulnerable. He was quickly routed afterwards and now sat with his back pressed against a barrel trying to heal his wound.

In the distance, three Vertibirds were on their way. Backup at last Jones had thought to himself. He'd called for it just as the fight started and time was not on their side. They needed to be gone before the others turned up. After visually confirming the Enclave symbols on their sides and as the aircraft descended, Jones had made his way to where Danse was being held.

"You've made a very big mistake, wastelander," Jones hummed dangerously.

"Not as fatal as yours," an eerily distorted voice replied behind him.

Jones spun around fast. The Vertibirds weren't theirs after all.

"Shit..." he spat out before fixing his glare on the person who'd spoken to him from inside the grey and red liveried T-60 suit flanked by others in similar who were holding up the rest of his squad.

"Heh. Figures it'd be you. Thought I'd have more time."

"Where is the boy?"

Jones kicked at Danse who snarled to cover the roar of pain he wanted to release.

"He's got him."

Even Danse jumped a little as a gun was rapidly drawn and a bullet shattered through Jones's cranium and he slumped dead to the ground.

"Take his armor and any other valuables. Do the same with the others but keep them alive," came the order shortly afterwards before the T-60 and the person within it turned their attention to Danse.

Slowly the helmet was removed and the synth gave a short sharp laugh.

"Hello again, old friend."

"Where is the boy?"

"I've sent him home."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Long Shadow

"Hey hey hey!" Nate hissed as the toddler squirmed with renewed vigor in his arms. "Calm down!"

He couldn't risk loosening his grip considering where he was.

Shortly after convincing the boy to eat some of the ripe mutfruit at Murkwater, Nate had made his way carefully with the child in tow towards a safe spot to call for one of the many Vertibirds belonging to the Brotherhood.

It hadn't taken long for one to arrive although Nate had never had to struggle so hard to keep a grip on a child as he did with this one. The boy tried everything he could to get away.

Even on the trip back to the Prydwen, Nate had to keep a iron grip around the toddler who didn't seem to even recognize the dangerous height they are at.

Nate pressed forward with the wriggling and screaming child, pushing past the concerned Paladins and Initiates who didn't dare actually ask their Sentinel what was going on.

"Hey!" Nate said rapidly to the Knight on guard near the entrance hatch as he used both arms to prevent the boy from slipping free. "Could you get the door for me?"

"Of course, Sentinel."

"God damn it, kid!" Nate hissed as the struggle only got worse inside. The howls even caught the attention of Kells and Maxson who stopped their private discussion to see what was going on.

"Sentinel, we have rules regarding civilians boarding the Prydwen," Kells rebuked while Maxson merely frowned.

"I'm sorry, Captain, but I was told to get this kid to here. To the Prydwen and the Brotherhood."

"By whom?"

Nate brushed Kells' question aside and directed his next words at Maxson.

"I need to speak with you. Privately, Elder."

Before Kells could interject, Maxson waved Nate in. "You may leave us."

"But-"

"Now, Captain. We can continue our discussion later."

Kells slowly nodded. "If that is your command."

"It is. Sentinel, after you."

* * *

Nate finally managed to get the little boy into the room with Maxson not far behind.

"You appear to have met your match, Sentinel," Arthur remarked with faint humor.

"You've no idea. Been a struggle since the Vertibird showed up."

Maxson folded his arms behind his back and peered at the small boy. "So what is going on?"

"I know you said that we're never to speak of Danse but..."

A dark look fell over Maxson's face at the name. "We've had this discussion, Sentinel, far too many times. If you continue to press on thi-"

"He found an emergency beacon. One he said you'd know. We found this kid at the end of it."

"What beacon?"

Nate handed over the scribbled numbers he'd hastily put on to a scrap of paper.

The Elder took it carefully before staring at what was scrawled across it. Maxson blinked, his face stony as he lifted his gaze from the paper to the boy still struggling and crying.

"You found him there?" he asked softly.

"Yeah. If I could calm him down-"

Arthur suddenly grabbed the boy's right hand. The toddler stopped his struggle and peered up at the man who'd caught him.

Maxson took him from Nate's arms and put him back on his feet with the right hand still firmly grasped in his.

He gently turned it over so he could see the small palm before he tapped it twice and drew a series of small shapes with his index finger.

"What... what did you just do?" Nate asked deeply confused as the little boy stopped his crying and started to giggle.

He reached out for Maxson to lift him which he did gingerly and with a strange intensity. He stared at every inch of the boy's face.

"Children in the Brotherhood are taught young. Even this young. The wasteland is a dangerous place. When you found him, was he in plain sight or hiding?" queried the Elder.

"Hiding."

"With the beacon. He was lost then. He's been trained to fear all but those who perform that gesture. A simple code to say he is among friends."

"Sorry?"

Maxson gently pulled back the shaggy mop of dark blonde curls from the boy's face before he tugged down part of the child's torn jumper over his right shoulder.

"Would you look at that..." Nate half chuckled.

The boy had a small transponder wrapped around his upper arm tightly with a small red button that blinked.

Maxson hummed before he switched the small device off. "This boy was raised by one of us. And this frequency... Sentinel, this stays between you and me. Are we clear?"

"Of course, Elder."

Maxson gave a slight smile to the toddler who was pulling at his beard. "We need to get him to Cade and then we can discuss what must come next. Was there anything else there when you found him?"

"Soldiers, sir. Enclave."

Maxson froze. "Sentinel?"

"Danse said they were Enclave. They had two Vertibirds and they were hunting him."

Arthur glanced at the little boy who had obviously decided that he wasn't somewhere too bad and was yawning, displaying his nearly full set of baby teeth.

"Where is the synth?"

"I don't know. They'd found the boy and Danse told me to get him out and back here. I had to leave him behind. I'm going to go back, Elder. To find him."

Maxson kept his gaze on the small child. "No. Your mission is to find out more about the Enclave and their operations here in the Commonwealth. Return as soon as you have any information."

The Elder walked past him, stopping just short of the ladder leading to the main bulk of the ship. He turned back to Nate with the small boy still locked in his arms.

"If... you happen to find the synth during the operation then so be it."

Arthur headed up the stairs quickly, leaving Nate to start his trip back out to where he last saw Danse.

* * *

"Cade!" Maxson barked, causing the older man to nearly jump out of his skin.

"Elder?"

Maxson charged in, setting the small boy in his arms on the infirmary bed before quickly sealing the door shut.

"Who is this little one?"

Maxson leaned back against the door and stared over where Cade was doing a once over of the giggling child.

"My son... I think."

Cade snapped his head around, almost pulling a muscle in his surprise. "What?"

* * *

Danse couldn't see.

He'd been blindfolded from the moment he was loaded onto the waiting Vertibird and now had to sit there as calmly as he could manage while unseen hands worked at fixing his damaged shoulder as the aircraft rumbled along to it's destination.

Just over the noise, he could make myriad voices talking and musing over plans.

"-just a direct assault. Take him back by force."

"-joking if you think that it'll be that easy. They've hunkered down at the airport and-"

"SILENCE!" came the roar of a voice familiar to Danse since long before he'd made the hard journey to the Commonwealth. "This must be planned carefully. I'll not risk Owyn's life through hastiness. Right now, he's safe but I want our men on the inside to verify this. I want him watched like a hawk. If anyone makes a move on him, they've signed their death warrant. Are we clear?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'll relay the orders forward."

"Good. I want the detailed plans of the Prydwen and airport they sent set up in Ops. Radio ahead and tell Mason I need him in there going over them with a fine tooth comb."

"Right away."

Suddenly the blindfold was ripped away from Danse's eyes and he blinked rapidly as they tried to adjust. When they finally came back in focus, he found himself face to face with an old friend.

"Danse... I need your help."

He laughed lightly. "You wouldn't be asking me if you knew what I was."

"Synth. M7-97. Reg DN-407P."

"How?"

"That doesn't matter right now. I need your help, Danse."

"I'm a synth, Evie!"

The young blonde woman with a look in her eyes far older than her years smiled.

"And I'm a traitor who slaughtered the inner council. I'm the one who set Henry Casdin on fire and watched him burn. Will you help me, Danse? Will you help me save the boy?"

Danse stared at the scarred but still beautiful pale face that gazed back at him intently.

"I sent him home, Evie. To the home that you knew once, that his father still knows, that his grandfather built from the ashes of the Capital."

"Arthur ordered your death. You owe him nothing."

"I owe my brothers and sisters everything. Have you forgotten?"

"I don't want deaths, Danse. What I did back then... I did for him. I did my duty as Sentinel even if it meant exile."

She glanced out the window at the dark churning clouds of what Danse suddenly realized was the Glowing Sea. "We're nearly there now. Brace yourself. The descent is always rough."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Encroaching Darkness

"Damn it."

Nate huffed out an exasperated breath. His search had not gone well at all. Apart from the ruins of the two destroyed Vertibirds, nothing else remained of the small war that had waged there bar a few bloody patches of earth.

He hoped that Danse hadn't been one of the unlucky ones whose blood was now mixed with the torched irradiated soil.

His wider search completed, Nate turned his attention to the downed aircraft. Hopefully he could salvage something from the machines themselves.

A few hours later and with sweat pouring out under the oppressive heat from the midday sun, Nate managed to rip out an almost intact hard-disc from what remained of the central console.

He peered at it carefully as if wishing its contents to reveal themselves before he placed it in a bag. After doing the same to the second aircraft and now in possession of two of the units, Nate scoured the wreckage before he found a piece of metal with the scorched emblem of the Enclave on it. Something to add weight to his claims.

Once done, Nate glanced over the site before reluctantly he left and made his way back to the Prydwen and to Proctor Ingram into who's safe hands he intended on giving the discs to.

* * *

"What going on?" He asked wearily to the engineer with hair the color of flames with a similarly combustible anger.

"You don't know? Where have you been!"

"Out in the field. Getting these."

Ingram winced slightly. "Yeaah. Sorry bout that."

"I've never seen the whole crew so... agitated. What's happened?"

"You know that little boy you brought back? Rumor is that he's Elder Maxson's son!"

Nate nearly choked on his reply. "What?! That's not... what?!"

"I know. It gets worse. Cade has somewhat confirmed that the kid's mom is- actually, Maxson can tell you that himself."

Nate rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I didn't see him where he normally holes up."

"Arthur's locked himself up with the kid in his quarters. Restricted access. I'd bet he'd let you in. Thanks for these. Maxson had told me a little of what you were sent out to do. Proctor Quinlan is going to help with cracking these. Once we know, you'll know."

* * *

After giving his mumbled thanks, Nate wandered back along the halls of quiet whispering voices.

The entire crew was busy it seemed spreading the news. Tension was practically palpable in the air. This news, if true, didn't seem to be anything to celebrate.

He rapped his knuckles on the heavy sealed door of Maxson's chambers the moment he arrived.

"Who is it?"

"It's me. Nate."

The lock of the door squeaked and groaned before it finally swung open. Maxson ushered him in before sealing it again behind them.

The little boy Nate had rescued was stretched out on Maxson's bed, deep in sleep while the entire Brotherhood it seemed was in uproar over his existence.

"Packing?" Nate queried lightly as his eyes took in the box filled with the different alcohols and chems that Maxson kept stocked in his room.

"More making the place child friendly. Cade almost refused to let me take my son out of the infirmary until he'd confirmed the place was secure for him."

He lifted the box and placed it carefully on a high spot away far away from where small grabby hands could reach.

"What news?" he asked Nate once his task was completed.

"No sign of Danse or of the Enclave but the wreckage was still there of the Vertibirds. I managed to retrieve some hard-discs in relatively good nick. Ingram and Quinlan are working on them now."

"Good."

They stood in an awkward silence for a moment before Maxson pulled out a chair.

"I know the questions you must have. Sit."

* * *

Nate took the offered seat and watched as Maxson strode around the table to the other side.

Before taking the opposite chair, Maxson leaned over and gently pulled the blanket up over the child who shuffled, mumbled and then went back his dreams.

"Not sure how a lost child turned into your son in the time-span of a day, Elder," Nate remarked.

"You're not the only one surprised," Arthur replied as he finally took his seat. "Danse knew... I mean the synth that masqueraded as Danse."

"Knew, Elder?"

"Of the baby. Of the child's mother. I suppose the entire crew now know it too. Cade's assistants are too loose with their talk. I should have insisted on them not having anything to do with the genetic testing."

Nate didn't push that. He waited for whatever Maxson, who was normally extremely articulate, was struggling to say.

"He is my son and his mother-" Maxson stopped briefly before he rapidly added, "I told you once that only one other person had served under me as Sentinel. She is the boy's mother."

"When you said serve under, I didn't think you meant literally," Nate joked to try to take the edge off.

"Heh," Maxson snorted with a faint smile. "The Evie I knew would have made the same one-liner."

Nate grinned. "I like women with a sense of humor."

"You'd have loved her then. Like I did."

The silence that came after was stifling after words that seemed so final.

"What happened?" Nate asked quietly.

"Evie was a bastard – born outside of a Brotherhood matrimonial union. Her mother was a wastelander from the Commonwealth. Her father... he was a very powerful man. An Elder of the Brotherhood. One that I in particular was very close to while he lived. I believe - hope - that I have spoken of him before. The great Owyn Lyons who alongside his older daughter laid the foundations of the Brotherhood here on the East Coast."

Nate pondered, "I've heard him mentioned and his daughter, Sarah. I didn't hear of another."

Maxson sniffed. "You wouldn't because she was practically stricken from the records after what she had done. Evie first arrived to the Brotherhood at the age of eleven. She'd made the journey alone across the wastes from the Commonwealth to the Capital wasteland. A feat I don't think many others have achieved solo and yet she did at such a young age."

"Why? I mean how did a journey like that seem like the best option?"

Arthur took a moment to think over what he would disclose before finally saying, "Her mother was once a recruit to the Brotherhood and far younger than her father – he was in his 60s and she was a mere twenty. Sarah Lyons disapproved. Intensely from what I gathered. The woman was cast out and she made her way back to where she'd grown up. She had Evie there and she herself died in the Commonwealth when their daughter was young. It became essential to her survival that Evie find her father and so she doggedly forced herself to cross the wastes."

* * *

"She must have been incredibly strong willed. Love at first sight?" Nate replied softly.

Arthur nearly laughed, the threat of it hovered over his usual composure before he stifled it. "We hated each other. I had a boyhood crush on her older half sister and Sarah couldn't ever bring herself to view Evie as a sibling but she did bring her into the fold. Helped her find her feet in the Brotherhood. When Sarah died, Evie became the last of the Lyons. I became Elder at sixteen and she became my Sentinel."

"You were close then at that stage I take it?"

Maxson smirked. "You could call it that. Took us a bit of time to get used to each other. In any case, Evie didn't get the post because we were close. She got it because there was none, myself included in that list, that was as unbelievably gifted at war as she was. I trusted her judgement implicitly and then-"

"Then what?"

"She got pregnant. We were eighteen, foolish and hormonal - drunk on our own successes in many ways. We planned out the hazards, what we needed to get in place before we even informed the rest of the Brotherhood and... we planned our future and the child's. Barely two months passed and she betrayed us. Evie slaughtered the council. An Elder doesn't make decisions alone. The council had been there since Elder Lyons' time although it sported a few new faces. She killed them all and then vanished. We received reports of her fleeing north. I sent entire squads out in search of her. No lethal force. I wanted her returned. Alive. I needed answers."

"But you never found her," Nate inferred from the look on Arthur's face.

"Or any evidence she still lived." Maxson peered over his shoulder at the child snoozing in his bed. "Until now at least. If she's out there, she'll come for him."

* * *

"Is that why you're locked in here with him?"

"No. As much as I'd like to not believe it, there are people on board who'd see our son as a means of reprisal."

"But he's as much yours as he is hers!" Nate replied astonished at Maxson's candid appraisal of some of the crew.

"Evie was lowborn in the eyes of Brotherhood purists. You'll meet them eventually. Extremists every one of them. Those who view new recruits from the wastelands as being of less worth than others for the most arbitrary of reasoning - the circumstances of their birth. That's how they see him as they had viewed his mother before him. Not as a Maxson or a Lyons but as an unacceptable deviation from purer bloodlines."

"That's insane."

Maxson leaned back in his chair. "Change takes time. Some people have to adjust their worldview slower than others. Weeding them out also is a slow process I've found. They tend to keep their activities below my radar although when known they're swiftly dealt with. If Evie is alive and is out there then she knows by now that our son is here. I have no doubt that she will make a move to secure him – either by extraction or other means. Right now, I'm more pondering what the Enclave's business in this is. We had believed we'd done significant damage to their organization 10 years ago under Elder Lyons – had hoped to have destroyed their infrastructure on the East Coast at the very least. Clearly that was not the case. If they are here, Sentinel, then we need to move against them. The entire Commonwealth will be in far greater danger than even when they were faced with the Institute."

"Who are they?" Nate asked, seeing the concern etched on Maxson's young face.

"They started all of this. They caused the Great War, Sentinel. They planned for it, created the Vaults even! The Enclave brought this suffering to the world and reemerged to forge the wastelands of their own creation into what they want them to be. What happened to you, to your family... they were at the very heart of it."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Kingdoms Fall

"Sentinel... may I speak with you for a moment. In private."

Nate was taken by surprise but quickly hid that shock from Kells who'd appeared rather dramatically just as he was about to head to Ingram shortly after leaving Maxson who was still watching over his charge in his quarters.

"Of course. What do you need?"

"I rather we have this discussion in private," Kells replied before opening the door to his own quarters and letting Nate step inside ahead of himself.

Once the door closed firmly behind them, Kells fixed a steady gaze on Nate who started to feel intensely awkward.

"I understand that you've spend the last hour with Elder Maxson."

"And?" Nate replied carefully.

"I need to know the details of what you discussed."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. It was a private conversation."

Kells flicked his stare briefly away before latching back again to Nate's own.

"Elder Maxson's weakest spot has always been Eve Lyons. The girl was trouble from the moment she arrived to the Brotherhood but she and Arthur shared a certain kind of kinship. Similar experiences breed familiarity."

"Breed other things too," Nate said defiantly. "One of which is sleeping in his father's bed right now."

"The girl is dangerous," Kells snapped. "She always was. Whatever disagreements I had shared with her father, I always respected his ability to turn a desperate situation around. But he was soft towards the end of his life. Too civilized. Eve Lyons was the opposite. She took the best traits of her father and she coupled it with the absolute savagery bred into her from her mother and the Wasteland she came from. Sentinel, she not only abandoned her post but slaughtered some of the Brotherhood's finest and most experienced soldiers as she did so. The knowledge and experience we lost on that dark day has even now not been replaced nor likely ever will be again."

The Lancer-Captain took a moment to compose himself. "I feel I should at this moment disclose that my mother was among those who lost their lives that day."

Nate's defiance immediately deflated. "I'm... I'm sorry."

"Sentinel, Maxson is blinded when it comes to Lyons. Now is when your position and it's duty becomes vital. You must act for the greater good of the Brotherhood. Lyons must be brought to account for her treachery and she must pay the blood price in full. Just as Elder Maxson ordered the immediate execution of the synth known as Danse, so you must now carry out that same sentence upon the girl. You must act in his stead when he is unwilling to do what is necessary. For the good of the Brotherhood of Steel."

* * *

Nate sat on the gangway with legs dangling over the edge as he watched the Vertibirds arrive and leave on their own missions.

He'd left Kells to his own dark thoughts and had headed to Ingram only to be told that there was no progress just yet with the discs. Now all he had left was the waiting game.

What Kells had said weighed heavily on him.

Nate sighed. What a great choice he had in front of him. On one hand, Kells was right. Why should there be one rule for Danse who'd never betrayed the Brotherhood as such but had discovered he was something not quite human; and yet another rule for someone who apparently had made the conscious decision to hurt the Brotherhood?

Funnily enough now was when he really needed Danse's calm words and levelheaded advice and he didn't even know where his friend was or if he still lived.

Nate rested his forehead on the cool railing, closing his eyes and listening to the almost relaxing mechanical noises all around him.

"Sentinel."

He slowly opened his eyes and looked up at concerned face of Cade.

"Hey,"

"You seem troubled. Anything I can help with?"

Nate laughed. "Not unless you want to take my job, Cade. You need me for something?"

"No. I sometimes just need some fresh air. Even when its not quite as fresh as I hoped," he replied with a scrunched up nose at the distinct foul odor drifting around.

"The wind isn't in our favor. That smell from the Warwick place just hits everywhere."

Cade chuckled before he sat down beside Nate. "Couldn't imagine living there with that stink."

* * *

The pair sat in a companionable silence for a time with Cade clearly in deep thought.

"Cade? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Nate turned his head slightly, cheek resting on the cold rail. "Did you know Sentinel Lyons well?"

"Knew her, knew her father and knew her sister. Good people."

"She killed members of the Brotherhood," Nate replied sharply.

Cade stared out across the vast landscape in front of him. "Sentinel, she didn't do what she did without reason."

"Cade?"

"What I'm about to say can go no further. I'll deny ever having said anything or even of this conversation happening at all. Are we clear?"

"Of course," Nate answered back quickly.

Cade sighed. "You see, we were never always whole like we are now. Once we were divided. Those who wanted to live the old ways of hoarding tech and never seeing the bigger picture. And then there was those under Owyn Lyons."

The older man glanced sideways at Nate. "He... he'd rather watch his kingdom fall then see the Brotherhood go backwards. In his opinion obviously. Not that mine has differed."

"What happened?"

"His ideals were kept through Elder after Elder until Maxson. He compromised. The Brotherhood was reunited and here we are."

Nate frowned. "Not quite how I've heard it described."

The Knight Captain snorted. "Don't mistake the pedestal that others craft for the man himself, Sentinel. Maxson would be the first to tell you that."

* * *

After a moment of uneasy silence, Nate said softly, "Kells thinks I should kill her."

Cade blinked. "I'm not surprised given his own... personal history with Lyons. If I were you, I'd think that proposition over very carefully however."

"Don't think I could win?"

"I think she'd have you gutted and hoisted on a flag pole before you could draw your weapon. Sentinel... you should find her however."

"Really?"

"Not to execute a sentence. Talk to her. Get both sides of what happened and decide for yourself. And you need to get her son off this ship."

Nate frowned. "What?"

"The divide we once had hasn't gone away, Sentinel. It's still there, papered over by loyalty to Maxson and the figure he represents. His son doesn't fit their mental picture of their all powerful leader. There's been whispers - murmurings of discontent already among certain action prone members of the crew. He's not safe here. Find his mother and save the boy, Sentinel."

Cade patted Nate on the shoulder before getting back to his feet and leaving him on the gantry floor.

As he stepped back into the Prydwen, Ingram passed him on the way out. She stood at the top of the stairs and called out to Nate, "Sentinel! We got something! Come on."

* * *

"Christ..." Nate hissed.

Quinlan glanced at Ingram who shrugged. "I know. Sorta unbelievable right."

"Yeah. Jesus... look at the numbers!"

Maxson finally spoke up. He'd remained silent from the beginning, looking over the data and processing it.

"Their combat ready ground units far exceed our own. Their flight ready Vertibirds out number our own by nearly double. And yet they've not made their presence known. We've not had even an inkling of their existence. The citizens of the Commonwealth themselves have no idea of their presence here. Why?"

Arthur pointed at a listing he'd been particularly interested in. "They're mired in a war. A war we didn't even know was going on. While we were dealing with the Institute here, out in that nightmare called the Glowing Sea someone has been taking the fight to the Enclave and holding their own against those overwhelming numbers."

Maxson fell silent, pondering again over what the data was saying to them. Suddenly he snapped upright. "Jericho!"

"Elder?" Nate asked with some confusion but was promptly ignored by Maxson.

"Quinlan! Get the files we have from when the Brotherhood first reached the East Coast."

"But-"

"NOW!"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Walls Of Jericho

"If you don't mind me asking, Elder, but who is Jericho?"

Maxson didn't look up from his almost frantic search through the stack of documents that Quinlan had retrieved and now helped his Elder go through.

"Jericho's almost mythical – a legendary figure within the Brotherhood. That's not his name of course. It was his call sign that's become more famous then man he actually was. Jericho was one of the original outfit that left the West Coast with Lyons on his expedition east and parted ways with a number of others belonging to the original Lyons Pride just on the outskirts of the Capital wasteland. Elder Lyons kept the details close to his chest but I know from past conversations that Jericho was sent on a mission northwards. He had some intermittent contact with the Brotherhood proper but that all disappeared with Elder Lyons' death."

Maxson yanked out a sheet of paper. "This is it."

"What is it?"

"Evie's testimony shortly after she first joined us. Sarah Lyons had wanted the story and the details of what remained of the north east coast documented," Arthur replied as he flicked through a couple of pages before finding the passage he wanted.

"... my journey was helped by Jim who made sure that I was stowed away with some merchants making their way south. He couldn't afford to spare any of his group to go with me but he tried to make sure I was alright as best he could..." he recited almost reverently.

Nate took in this new information gleaned from the handwritten document. "If Evie came from the Commonwealth originally then that means she had to have met him there or at least somewhere nearby. I mean is it possible for Jericho to be still alive?"

"Jim Lyons was fifteen years younger than his brother when they first set out from Lost Hills," Quinlan replied sedately. "Based on how long Owyn lived for, I'd imagine you could place a similar value to his brother."

Nate gaped. "Guys... the fact Jericho is Evie's uncle is a huge piece of the puzzle here that you should have disclosed! If she fled back to the Commonwealth from the Capital then clearly she'd go to shelter! She went to find Jericho!"

"Ehhh, I'm not so sure," Ingram piped up. "He's more likely to be dead. They all are. Why else have we heard nothing?"

"Explain to me then who else would be capable of stalling forces of this size?!" Nate barked out while jabbing a finger at the Enclave data before them. "Who else would have the discipline and know how to take on the Enclave?!"

"The Sentinel's right," Maxson said firmly. "Without concrete proof it's merely a best guess but it is more likely to be a Brotherhood unit then anyone else. The records we took from the Institute held no knowledge of the Enclave bar the chapter we shut down in the Capital so we can be fairly certain to disregard their involvement. If the Minutemen were involved we'd know from the Sentinel's close ties to that group."

Ingram folded her arms across her chest. "So where do we start?"

"With silence," Maxson replied. "This information is to go no further. Ingram and Quinlan, I need searches conducted across all frequencies and bands. If they are hidden in the Glowing Sea we need additional listening posts set up on the boundary. We've got to find them."

He turned to Nate. "I need you to help in their endeavors. Once you've got anything I want to know."

* * *

Cade sighed before he carefully placed the now clean scalpel on the table.

He glanced around before picking up his small backpack. He just had to make sure everything was just as he'd found it when he'd first been selected for the job.

Cade gave one last look over the infirmary before he stepped out and headed for the canteen.

"-and worse than that-"

"-say she murdered Kells' mot-"

"-xson will surely order us to-"

The Knight-Captain shook his head a little at the myriad rumors swirling in the tense atmosphere. The crew was preparing themselves for some great conflict. Children, Cade mused. Just children.

He sank down on seat and got himself a nuka-cola. After taking a long slug, Cade sat and waited.

His wait wasn't long at all to even his surprise and Cade had been through enough in his time with the Brotherhood to feel that nothing could catch him off guard.

"Knight-Captain."

"How's that arm, Jonas?"

The young Initiate grinned. "Almost perfect."

"Good good."

Jonas slid into the seat beside Cade.

"They say that the weather will be fine all day," the young man remarked happily.

"Oh really?"

"Lots of sun. Clear skies. Cool waters."

"A day for a trip to the beach then?"

"Absolutely. A day fit for visiting the Walls He Built," Jonas glanced as the clock ."But... perhaps not today. You should stay and prepare for something a little different. A long awaited homecoming."

"Heh," Cade remarked with a faint relief mixing with his disappointment before he put down the half empty bottle and carefully taking the slip of paper that Jonas had placed there there. "Is this goodbye, Jonas?"

"It is for now. Goodbye, Knight-Captain. Send the mother my best."

Cade picked up his bag and note before he wandered back the way he came.

Once past the infirmary door, Cade finally allowed relief to flood through him. He hadn't appreciated the thought of how he was getting off the Prydwen in the first place, let alone what he needed to do before then.

He dropped everything bar the note in his clasped hand once he was inside.

"Shit..." he hissed before bolting out and quickly down the stairs.

* * *

Maxson glanced up from the table littered with documents as Cade burst in.

"You alright, Cade?" Ingram asked, a little concerned with how out of breath he was.

"She's here!"

"Who?"

Cade stared at Maxson in particular. "Evie...""

* * *

The knight on watch huffed. The airport job was boring. Sure it was an important role and he was honored every time but still it was not something to write home about.

His eye finally caught sight a young woman dressed like one of the wastelanders that normally popped up to trade or just query about one thing or another.

"This is a Brotherhood of Steel outpost," he barked out. "State your business."

She smiled. "I'm here to turn myself in."

"Heh. Who are you?"

"Eve Lyons. I'd suggest you call your Elder as I believe he is expecting me. I'll just sit over here until he arrives."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Hello and Goodbye

"Elder, you sure you want to bring him with us?"

Nate hovered uncertainly near the door of Maxson's quarters while the Elder got the boy into some newer and less tattered clothes.

"This could easily be a ploy, Sentinel. To convince me to leave the Prydwen and my son who would now be exposed for his mother to recapture. I know Eve and how she thinks. I'm not taking any risks."

Nate shrugged. "I'm just not sure how she'll take to his new haircut." he added jokingly.

Arthur ran a gentle hand over the boy's head now sporting a look similar to his own only in the dark blonde of youth. "She'll just have to. He couldn't suffer with that unkempt mess any longer and I certainly couldn't stand seeing it. This is far better. A proper Squire now."

Nate was quite taken with the little boy.

He was quiet and mostly calm with a smile that was infectious even to the normally stone like Maxson. The child was also quite taken with the man who was his father and sat happily with no struggle in the Elder's lap as the Vertibird bringing them to the airport took off noisily.

Nate was even more fascinated by the child as he peered out the open door with his father holding him in a vice-like grip while the soother in his mouth slowly bopped up and down as he absentmindedly suckled on it.

With his new haircut, Nate could see now the resemblance the child had to Maxson.

There could be no doubt that he was the boy's father. Same strong facial features although the boy had the softer edges of youth. He thought of Shaun. Was he like that when he was young - as quietly interested in the world as this little boy here.

Nate shoved the thoughts and the deep melancholy they brought aside.

* * *

"Hand," Maxson remarked absentmindedly as he stepped off the Vertibird.

The boy, who'd been put back on his feet first, immediately latched his smaller one in the offered large hand of his father.

"What's the plan then, Elder?" Nate asked quietly. "She's apparently sitting down on the road not far from the southern entrance. Watching Liberty Prime on patrol."

"Take my son and follow close. When we reach the outer perimeter, I want you to conceal yourself behind the barrier. Don't let her see you or the boy. When I call, you may bring him out to us. Is that clear?"

"Of course."

"Do not let anyone take him from you. From this moment, Sentinel, your task is to ensure that he doesn't get taken by anyone."

"Of course."

* * *

Arthur didn't stop or hesitate even though he wanted to.

The eyes of his soldiers were on him. He could feel their gaze boring though him as he stepped out of their outpost and spotted the familiar but distant figure with blonde hair who was sitting with her back against the wall as Liberty Prime continued his pre programed patrol.

Maxson kept up the pace. Each step methodically bringing him closer to someone he'd not seen in years while he kept his body tense for a fight.

"Hello, Arthur," she said softly after catching a glimpse of him from the corner of her eye.

He came to halt, both just staring at the other for a moment in silence.

"You've changed. Put on more muscle than I remember you having," she finally added. "Or maybe you're just fitting better as Elder."

"They tell me you've come to account for your crimes."

Eve gave a half smile. "And to see Owyn. Where is he, Arthur?"

"You named him Owyn?"

"Suited him. He has the Lyons' hair."

"He's a Maxson."

"... I know. Where is he? Is he alright?"

"Why have you come here?"

Eve, still on the ground, turned her gaze skyward. "I told you there was blue skies in the Commonwealth. Blue skies and sea breezes. Is the Capital still so dull and murky?"

"You'll have to be executed."

"I know. Can I see Owyn?"

Arthur tilted his head slightly to the side. "Sentinel, come here please."

* * *

As Nate stepped out with the eager little boy who was smiling the moment he saw his mother, he found himself face to face with his predecessor and was struck dumb.

He didn't know what he expected but definitely not this young calm and beautiful woman before him.

What struck him first was the pale blonde hair - long but tied back with some unruly sections that framed the slightly square jawed face. Large doe eyes of a blue not dissimilar to Maxson's own gazed at him, unsettling him with the look of an old soul in the body of one so much younger then he was.

She was scarred, evidence of her less than stellar life to this point, with one particular jagged one severing her right eyebrow in two before skipping her eye and continuing further down her cheek.

"Hey," Nate finally said almost dumbly as she quickly took the giddy child from him.

Eve ignored his greeting, focusing instead on her child who clung to her.

"Hi!" she laughed as her son squeaked happily from behind his soother.

She hugged him tightly, closing her eyes and breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Arthur," she finally whispered.

Nate glanced at Maxson and was somewhat surprised to see the amount of conflict in him.

"You'll have to be tried for your crimes. You'll be executed," he finally said.

"I know. Thank you anyway. For not shooting me on sight."

"Why... why did you do it? Why did you..." Maxson stopped the rush of words that escaped his control.

"Sentinel..." he finally said firmly to Nate. "Arrest her. Place her in the brig. Stand guard and do not let her out of your sight. I'll return with a jury of her peers shortly. This must be done. For the Brotherhood."

"Elder... about the boy..."

"He can stay with her for now. Keep them comfortable. It won't be long before he'll never see her again."

Maxson strode away with a face like stone.

Eve watched him leave before she turned her gaze to Nate.

"I suppose I better follow you then."

* * *

Nate settled the pair in to the small caged off area that would serve as their jail.

Maxson would need a few hours at least to put together what they needed. A few of the ground crew already were murmuring about why they didn't shoot her on sight but more were pleased that at the very least there would be a semblance of a trial.

Civilization surely hadn't fully died if they could hear out both sides.

Nate sat with Eve and Owyn for a time, watching as she doted on the boy and he in turn wanted to show her everything that he found interesting. It was disarming. In his mind, Nate often thought of Nora and Shaun. Would they have been like this? How much had he missed...

"They say you killed a lot of good people," Nate said to her.

"Depends on the perspective. Good can be bad to others."

"You think they were bad people?"

Eve glanced at Nate. "People are complicated creatures. A gift and a curse. They do good and bad. Sometimes one more visible than the others."

"Why did you do it?"

Eve turned her gaze away and smiled at Owyn who showed her a picture in his book.

"My own reasons, Sentinel. My own."

"You'll die."

Eve bit back a smile. "Oh I'm sure I will. Just... not right now."

"Wha-"

In one sudden motion, she snapped across the distance and hammered an open palm strike into Nate's chest. He completely lost his breath. Before he could even react, she followed up with a kick to the side of his head that turned the world dark for him.

Nate passed out on the floor.

Eve picked up the crying Owyn. "I'm sorry, baby!" she crooned. "We just need to get out of here. Don't worry. The big nice Sentinel will just wake up with a nasty headache!"

With upset and sniffling child in one arm, Eve quickly fished out some bobby pins from Nate's pockets and picked the lock to her cell.

After a brief look around, Eve snuck her way to the rear exit of the airport and disappeared.

* * *

Owyn cheered up when the Vertibird with the Lyons' Pride logo appeared after his mother had taken him quickly to the evac point.

"How did it go?"

Eve smiled at Danse who opened the door clad in the familiar grey and red livery armor of the Brotherhood.

"Good. No one dead which is nice. Your friend however will have a bit of a headache when he wakes up."

Danse pulled her and Owyn on-board after which the Vertibird immediately took off.

"What's the situation?" she quickly asked him as she strapped Owyn in.

"We've had some scouts rooting through the ruins. Mason thinks they were trying to relocate the entrance they infiltrated the last time. Jericho has the place on high alert. He feels that we'll have a fight sooner rather than later."

"Thank god we collapsed those tunnels. Any forces mustering?"

Danse sat down opposite her, watching the Commonwealth landscape pass by outside the door.

"Some. The radiation's making it tough work to get accurate data."

Eve gently stroked Owyn's head. "He cut his damn hair. Of course he bloody would..," she murmured.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing. Nothing... just thinking out-loud."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Move!

Nate grimaced as Cade continued his gentle ministrations to the large bruise covering part of Nate's head and the accompanying headache he had.

Maxson had arrived shortly after Nate had been discovered alone in the cell with the first person the ground crew had called for - Cade - and subsequently left with no word once he realized that the cell was empty.

From what Ingram had mentioned to Nate later, the Elder himself had left their compound and was searching for where Eve had gone with Owyn.

"He was pretty pissed," Ingram added wearily. "I'd imagine you'd want to avoid him as much as possible for the next few days - just like the rest of us."

"Don't think I'm gonna be that lucky," he replied before hissing as Cade injected him with stimpak.

The Knight-Captain patted Nate's shoulder. "That's should keep you going for now. Try not to let pretty faces sway you from the job again, eh?"

"That's not what happened! ... thanks anyway, Cade."

"Don't thank me yet. Wait until after Maxson tears you a new asshole and then we'll see how grateful you are," Cade chuckled lightly back.

* * *

"INGRAM!"

The trio stalled and froze as Maxson's voice announced his return as it roared from outside the airport main building before the man himself arrived back with two Knights in T51 power armor following in his wake.

"Yes, Elder?" Ingram quickly answered as scowling Maxson flung open the doors and burst in.

"We found Vertibird landing marks within a stones throw of the old police station. Go with these Knights and assess them. I want to know if their one of ours or someone else's."

"That's not quite possible. I mean how thi-"

"I'M NOT ASKING!" he snapped back at the Proctor who shut up quickly. "It's a goddamn order! I don't care how you do it. Just get me the information. Are we clear, Proctor?"

"... yes, Elder," Ingram replied before she pushed past and disappeared with the Knights hurriedly on her tail.

Maxson turned his clearly volatile mood on Nate.

"Now that you're awake and treated, Sentinel, I want a full debrief on what the hell happened!"

Cade packed up his bag and quietly left the pair alone, making his way stealthily past the angry younger man and quickly exiting the building entirely.

"I don't have an answer for you. We were talking in the cell and then she got the drop on me. Didn't see it coming," Nate answered.

"Firstly, you shouldn't have been in there with them at all. You were to ensure Eve didn't abscond. That did not require your presence in the cell!"

Nate put his hands up. "I know. My mistake and I take full responsibility. It was curiosity on my part."

"Curiosity that has cost me and cost the Brotherhood! What else happened?"

"Nothing. I locked us all here. We were talking then she suddenly punched me in the gut and gave me a kick to the head for good measure. Woke up here with some of the Scribes making sure I was still alive. When I looked around I realized they were gone. She'd emptied my pockets of bobby pins too. Explains how she picked the lock at least."

"You locked yourself in the cell with bobby pins and undoubtedly the key on your person? Sentinel, I'm having serious doubts over whether you are in fact suitable for your position at all."

Nate quickly bit back a retort, instead letting Maxson vent whatever he needed to. He'd made a stupid mistake and underestimated Eve. More blinded by a pretty face he mused to himself and himself alone. He doubted Maxson would respond well to that and, well, it was something that hadn't happened since Nora.

The Elder paced a little before a heavy and deep exhale seemed to mark the turning point of his rage.

"Sentinel, I want you to join Quinlan in setting up the listening posts around the Glowing Sea. Once that is completed, you are to return to the Prydwen immediately for new orders. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Elder."

"Get out of my sight," Maxson practically spat out as Nate took his leave.

* * *

"Sentinel!"

Nate stopped just on the outskirts of the Brotherhood's outer boundary walls.

"Scribe Haylen! How can I help you?"

"I think it's more how I can help you. A mutual friend has been in touch. He wants to meet."

Nate frowned. "Who?"

"Don't be an idiot," she hissed at him before pointing across to the nearest prominent landmass across the water - one he knew held Nordhagen Beach. "He's over there but can't stay too long. Come on!"

"I really can't, Haylen. I'm already under intense scrutiny and Quinlan's waiting for me out near the Glowing Sea."

"Sentinel... " Haylen whispered, desperately glancing around to see if anyone was near. "Danse is here to take you to them... to Lyons Pride."

* * *

"Jericho, I-"

"STOP! I know exactly why you did what you did! I'm sure Owyn had a place in your reasoning but I'm also damn sure revenging yourself against certain quarters had it's part in that mess you made of retrieving the boy!"

Eve huffed out a breath, desperate to reply but knowing that listening would serve her better against her elderly uncle who was still fully in charge of his facilities and of his Brotherhood of Steel chapter.

Jim Lyons shook his head. "You're deliberately revealed your existence and that of our forces to them."

"As we always should have," she barked back. "Together we are stronger, Jericho! Together we can truly cleanse and reforge the Capital chapter into something better. Into true steel! Not this hulking mess of shadowy figures and knives in the dark."

"And what of Arthur?" Jim said as he took the seat behind the old oak desk. "He'd find himself leader of a Brotherhood in the middle of a civil war. Whose side does he choose? Whose knives should he be waiting for to stab him in the back?"

Eve grimaced. "Arthur's strong. I wouldn't have left if he wasn't. He can take care of himself."

"If you really believed that then you wouldn't be here at all because what happened two years ago would not have occurred."

* * *

The silence was that followed Jim's words was deafening.

The far older man who, unlike his brother, had a head full of wispy white hair softened his stance a little. "I don't mean to pull at old wounds, Eve. But this... we've enough to be dealing with right now with the main Enclave forces then to be trying to put to right old wrongs from my brother's era. What did you really intend with this big revelation of yours at the airport?"

Eve sank down on the armrest of the large soft chair that was placed in front of Jim's desk.

"I hoped to force what remained out into the open. The reveal of my existence and that of Owyn's will really bring out what lies below the surface. We'll see the true depth of the betrayal that I just scratched the surface of."

Jim leaned forward. "And then what?"

"I dunno. At least we'd know if theres more than those I dealt with and, more importantly, who they are. Act on it appropriately afterwards. Or at least convince Arthur."

"He has no reason to believe you and yet has more than enough information to hate and distrust you."

Eve blinked. "The way I see it, he doesn't need to hear it from me. They'll all see it for themselves. And... I've sent Danse back."

"Oh?"

"To collect Arthur's new Sentinel. I think we can trust him. Danse certainly does and he is the truest Brother I've ever known - synth or otherwise."

Jericho snorted. "You know I should have you expelled for that alone."

"You won't. Jericho, we can do this. We can set my father's... Sarah's chapter back on the right path."

Jim sighed. "Alright but not at the cost of the work we do here. Our mission must take precedence. Are we clear?"

"Of course," she replied, hiding the small grin that was ready to burst out.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The Wall

Nate doubted he'd ever had run as fast as he did to cross the distance to where Haylen said Danse waited with the Scribe matching his speed.

Shortly after crossing the small bridge, Haylen pushed past him and aimed towards the floating raider hell of Libertalia.

Nate spotted her target – a Vertibird with Brotherhood livery and a very familiar figure alongside it. Danse was nonchalantly inspecting the mini-gun while the pilot was stretched out on the sands and enjoying the sun – both at ease with a hefty number of raiders dead in the water and on the flotilla near the shoreline.

"DANSE! You're alive!"

His friend barely had time to turn when Nate barrelled in and caught him in a rib-crushing hug.

"... I'm not sure how I'm supposed to react here," Danse said with his usual monotone.

"Heh!" Nate laughed before lightly punching Danse's arm. "Don't say anything. God, I've never been so relieved. I really thought you were dead."

"It was close but an old friend turned up just in time. And now... I taking you both to her."

Nate frowned. "It's Eve, isn't it."

"Yes. She sends her apologies for what she had to do earlier but she'd like to try and make it up with an invitation to you both to visit the Wall. There's a lot to discuss. More then that, the Brotherhood needs good men and women and I've personally recommended you both." Danse blushed slightly before he added, ".. The word of a Paladin apparently carries weight."

"What?" Haylen asked in surprise.

"I've been reinstated. Full honors restored even though I'm a synth."

Nate grinned. "So... what does this mean, Danse?"

"It's about trust," his friend replied. "The Commonwealth Brotherhood knows a lot more about synths then we do and they've really helped. Come. Let's get moving. The sooner we get there the sooner you'll know what's happening."

* * *

Nate and Haylen were squeezed in beside each other as Danse directed the pilot to take off.

"Are we in any danger?" Nate shouted out over the noise of the engines starting to run.

"No. We've robbed a transponder from a downed Vertibird near the Glowing Sea. The Prydwen controllers won't investigate it that intently. Once they spot it as a familiar number they won't care."

Haylen let out a little squeak as she was shoved forward at the sudden rush forward of the Vertibird.

Danse caught her easily enough, locking one arm around her waist while the other held firm to a handhold just above.

Nate laughed to himself as Danse was completely oblivious to Haylen's flushed cheeks and awkwardness while he himself stared out the window. He let her go almost absentmindedly before he started to drag in the mini-gun.

"We need to close the doors before we hit the Glowing Sea," he shouted at Nate who arrived to help.

Once shut, the noise levels decreased sufficiently that they could speak normally.

"What's the Wall?" Nate asked quickly.

"The base of ops in the Glowing Sea. Not an actual wall."

"Why call it that though?"

Danse chuckled. "The Walls of Jericho. Elder Jericho Lyons founded this chapter there after he separated from his brother near the Capital wasteland."

Nate shrugged. "The Walls of Jericho fell in the story. Doesn't seem like a good name to have."

"Yeah but only after the intervention of a god," Danse said back before he glanced out the window.

They were traveling fast Nate suddenly realised. A lot faster than anything he remembered them capable of doing. And now the air was changing. Blue skies were fading, becoming lost behind fog, dust and sparking atmosphere.

"We're getting close," Danse said to Haylen and Nate. "Get strapped in. This will be a bumpy ride from here on in."

Just as he said it, blinding light arced outside the window before being followed by a massive boom that nearly took out their eardrums.

"Paladin!" the pilot shouted. "Get your crew locked in! Descending in ten seconds. The weather's a little too rough even this far out."

"Roger!" Danse replied even as he rushed to make sure his friends were secure before settling himself in.

* * *

He caught sight of Nate's confused expression as they all experienced the sudden drop as the pilot dived low.

"Above a certain altitude," he started to explain, "it's extremely difficult to keep both a visual on your location and the Vertibird in the air. There's far too much interference here for anything other than visual confirmation to be reliable in the long term. So to combat that, we're crossing the Glowing Sea environs at an operational height of barely 20 meters."

"Holy shit!" Nate barked out.

"I know. But these pilots are the best and, while I hate to say it, they'd run rings around the Prydwen's crew. They train out here in this!" Danse said as they swerved dangerously around the wreckage of a building half hidden in the thick almost green dust and smog.

The turns being taken was so tight that Nate was having to grip hard to the nearest object he could get a handhold on while Haylen was at the mercy of the forces at play and only still in her seat thanks to the safety straps.

"There's no room for error out here. To be at the controls of one of these Vertibirds means you'd have to survive some of the most rigorous and unforgiving training possible. We're getting close. Brace for a sudden stop," Danse barked out after he glanced outside the window.

"What-"

Nate and Haylen were suddenly jerked forward so hard that only the safety belts saved them from being tossed out the front of the aircraft.

As air slowly started to drift back into Nate's lungs, he could hear the distant chatter of the pilot as he connected to the base.

"-Fox-Zero-Zero. Request docking and decomm."

"We hear you, Scout. Doors open. Descend immediately. Dock number 251. Welcome back."

Nate looked up from where he'd been almost heaving and turned gaze out the window. He briefly caught a glimmer of the ground level disappearing as they sank into darkness.

They could see nothing with only the sound of the Vertibird's engines in their descent mode telling them they were still in a void of some sort.

"Doors locked. Decomm underway. Pilot, please hold position."

"Roger."

The cabin exploded with light. Jets of a strange gaseous mixture coupled with electrical discharges flooded the now visible cavern. It was a large structure, empty with rock walls that held countless tubes and wires that propelled whatever it was currently gushing around them.

Above and below were large blast doors, both closed but Nate could see that they'd clearly descended in through the massive automated upper one. Clearly they were intending on going lower.

Just as suddenly as it started, the jets cut off and they were left in near darkness bar the occasional spark of left over static.

* * *

"Decomm complete," the pilot's terminal crackled. "Please complete your descent to the designated dock and inform maintenance of any technical issues that may have occurred during the flight. Debrief for next mission at 17.00."

Nate's stomach rushed back to his throat as they started to drop once more only this time it went on for what seemed like an eternity.

Clearly they were miles below the surface having past through at least five of those heavy bay doors before finally they were nearly blinded entering into an almost sunlight bright chamber.

Nate was stunned. The place was huge with large docking arms raised from floor to crisscross the sides and ceilings that held more than just Vertibirds.

He recognized at least four types of fighter planes from his own era looking almost brand new all while being held in automated magnetic lock arms that kept the lower floor clear. On that lower level the technicians worked in their areas, calling down what they needed to fix and loading the repaired aircraft back on to the arms for storage.

Their Vertibird fly carefully through the myriad docks in various stages of loading or unloading before reaching one arm labelled with an almost faded "251".

Just like the Prydwen's own storage system, a smaller arm with magnetic clamps shot out of the larger before it grabbed the Vertibird and started to retract it into position.

"Right, folks. We're here," the pilot said as he started his shutdown protocols.

"Thanks, solider," Danse remarked. "Let's get this open. I think you guys could use a look around."

He slid open the doorway and glanced down at the substantial drop below him. The arm came to a stop next to a walkway heavily pinned with bolts to the rockface and which led off into a tunnel.

Danse pulled a hidden metal panel out from the Vertibird's floor that connected with the walkway and allowed them to cross.

"Well," Danse said softly with a grin. "Welcome to the Wall."

"Welcome indeed!"

Nate and Haylen both shot surprised looks at Eve who arrived from the walkway tunnel with a cleaner and happier looking Owyn holding her hand.

"Oooooh. Sorry bout that," she said with wince, noticing immediately the bruise discoloring Nate's face. "Come on. We'll get a small tour in before getting down to business."


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi there! Thanks for all the reviews, faves, follows, etc! :) A special thank you to "Guest" who pointed out my error with Haylen's name!**

* * *

Chapter 11

Commonwealth Steel

They were taken on a partial tour of the immense facility, touring from vast area to another until Eve had dropped Owyn off at a small room located within a residential area that was filled with toys and other kids of around his age and younger.

After a very brief chat to the Knight on watch there, Eve had then led the way with Danse close at her side towards what they had said was the core of the base.

"What is this place?" Haylen asked in awe.

Eve faintly chuckled. "Would you believe me if I told you that this was once Enclave?"

"Really?" Haylen replied while trying to conceal her shock.

"Indeed. It's actually part of a far more vast complex that engulfs a large portion the land beneath the Glowing Sea. This was their B-wing. You'll still see the signage on some of the older sections. They housed the majority of their air units along with munitions here. When the Brotherhood managed to secure this section, they blew up the connecting corridors to the rest of the facility. Several tons of rocks tends to act as a deterrent but we keep monitoring just in case. Since then, we've been involved heavily in defensive maneuvers as the Enclave seek to reclaim this place. Since we need every soldier we have here, we tend to only leave for the Commonwealth proper for Intel gathering along with recruiting. Bit tough to pull in potential recruits when you live in the middle of an irradiated hellhole."

Hayden was too in awe of the scale of the place to ask anymore questions. Not that she could at any rate as Eve quickly added, "We're here. This way please."

She gestured towards a door she'd opened while both her and Danse remained stationary. Nate took that to mean they were to enter first.

It was an office and still shining and pristine after all these years. Wood gleamed with fresh polish, pictures hung on the walls free of dust and there seated in a leather chair at the impressive desk was an old man with thick white hair and vibrant blue eyes.

He stood up and came around to desk to meet them.

"So you're my niece's replacement, eh?"

Nate slowly took Jericho's offered hand. "Sorry?"

"Joke. Bad one apparently. I'm Jim but most folks around here call me Jericho."

"Most people call you Elder Lyons," Eve retorted back.

"Bah! Too old to be an effective Elder at this stage. Not like the old days when I'd be first in line to blast some raider or Enclave bastard. Any way... please, sit."

Nate and Haylen took the empty seats while Danse and Eve slipped quietly out the room with the Paladin giving his friends a sly wink as the door shut behind them.

* * *

"So... what do you think of the place, eh?"

Haylen couldn't stop the rush of words that escaped her mouth. "Fantastic! And the tech!"

"Oh I bet. As a scribe, this place must seem unbelievable almost."

Jericho turned his gaze to Nate. "And for you this must be surreal. I hear you were a vault dweller. Not just one in fact but a man quite out of time."

"You could say that," Nate replied quietly.

"Well, I'd like to offer you both an opportunity. Not all Brotherhood Chapters are the same. Not all are equal. When I left my brother and my family behind years ago it was with the absolute knowledge that I'd unlikely ever see them again in my lifetime. But it was a necessary act."

Jericho took a seat and rolled it forward. "I don't have secrets. I've made it a point to never have such things. When you have secrets, you have weaknesses that can be exploited. My brother Owyn and I made a very long journey across the continent. But... shortly before we reached the Capital itself, he and I both realized that our small contingent which had now grown larger from numbers of waste-landers we took on had been compromised. A suspicion but nothing we could ever quite pin down. Owyn decided that he would complete the task assigned to us. My mission became one of rebuilding. I selected the most trusted and faithful of our brothers and sisters and set out for Boston."

Jericho sighed. "Now, apart from sweet Eve and young Owyn, I am the last Lyons and my brother's attempts at reforming his own chapter now lay like cinders in the hands of the last Maxson. Two old families that go back to the very beginning of the Brotherhood now are nearly extinguished. That's not by chance."

"What are you saying?" Nate asked warily.

"A suspicion. Now... Danse has vouched for you both. He in turn has the full trust of his former pupil, Eve, and she has mine. I'm not asking you to turn against your oaths and vows to our distant colleagues. One day I'd like very much to invite fully into our little family. But first, I want you both to help us help you."

"I'm a little lost, Elder," Nate replied.

"Your chapter is about to undergo a very unstable... a very divisive period. Your Elder Maxson will need all the help he can get and he'll receive it. Eve will return with you both to the Prydwen. She has volunteered to undergo the trial of her peers that is required for the crimes she's accused of. This is where you two come in. There are things Arthur needs to know but is extremely difficult to prove. Those involved covered their tracks very well and unfortunately are now all dead. The records are locked only in one last place."

"Wheres that?"

"Eve's memories."

Nate frowned. "I think I see where you're going with this and that path leads to Goodneighbour."

"Indeed. You'll need to plan. Eve will do what you require of her but I need you two to get her memories to Arthur. He's a very astute young man. Armed with the most accurate information, he'll be more than capable for the task in front of him but he'll need those he can trust."

Nate and Haylen glanced at each other.

"You mean us," Haylen added.

"I do. The only reason you're here is Paladin Danse informed us of your character. Eve and Danse go way back to when she first joined the Brotherhood. She trust him almost as much as she trusts Arthur."

"Elder Maxson wants her dead."

"Does he now? Or is he trapped in a corner with few options to hand? Well... I don't need an answer right away. Go and grab some food. Talk with Danse and get some rest. Tomorrow I will need an answer and then we can go from there."

"If we say no?"

"You say no. We'll release you back into the Commonwealth to go about your duties once more."

"That's it? No strings?"

Jim put up his hands. "No strings."

* * *

Shortly after they left to join Danse, Eve slipped quietly back inside the office to chat to her uncle.

"Well? What do you think of them?"

"Young. Scared. Bright enough but I'm unsure of their commitment to this."

"No more than the rest of us."

Jim sighed. "I'm old, Eve. You and I are the last of our family."

"I know..."

"I could order you to stay," Jim said without looking up from the papers he was going through.

"You could."

Jim sighed again. "What about Owyn?"

"He's here and safe."

"We're expecting a full scale assault. Those infiltrators stole him the last time and that was not by chance. Colonel West remembers you. He wants your head."

"I know. That's why I need Arthur to understand. I need to take this opportunity in case-"

Eve fell silent.

"Ahh. I see... I see."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Danse

"So," Danse greeted upon seeing his friends, "how did it go?"

Nate sank into a nearby chair while Haylen hovered anxiously before taking a free seat herself.

It was the scribe who answered first. "I'm not sure, Danse. This place, these people... her. We've all heard the tales of what she did. How can you expect us to trust in this, in them even?"

"I hoped that you'd have faith in me and my judgement," Danse replied firmly, causing both Nate and Haylen to shrink back a little at the faint censure in his voice.

"I don't expect you to trust in Eve. I expect you to trust in me. Eve was under my charge when she was an Initiate as you all were once. It was a task given to me personally by her sister, Sarah. Heh... I've never forgotten it," the synth added quietly.

They watched as Danse carefully thought over his next words. "Sarah Lyons was without peer while she lived and when she entrusted her sister's education to me it was the biggest endorsement of how I had acquitted myself in the Brotherhood that I had ever received. But Sarah died not long after their father himself had passed away. Eve was alone for a second time, friendless then as she had been since she'd arrived. I became her... sword and shield I suppose."

"Her protector, huh?" Nate asked, spotting the familiar look of reminiscence on the synth's face.

"Had to. There was no one else... well, until Arthur. And when he grew into the role he had been groomed for, Eve had nothing to fear from anyone."  
Danse sighed. "But those days are long since past and Arthur can't protect her from the others the way he used to."

"Would he want to now after everything?" Haylen asked quietly.

"Absolutely," Danse barked out.  
He spotted the shocked look on the scribe's face and tempered his next words. "I know this might be hard for you especially Haylen, considering the esteem that Elder Maxson is held in but the truth is he's never stopped mourning Eve's departure. Hell, I was given instructions to see if she lived shortly before we set out for the Commonwealth months ago. You see, they only really understood each other. Both had certain levels of expectation placed on them; both taken from their homes at a young age by the death of a parent and expected to fall neatly into line."

Danse took a sip of water from the bottle he had clutched in hand before he added, "Arthur wasn't allowed be a child in the West Coast Brotherhood. Elder Owyn Lyons had vehemently disagreed with the adult mentality they had thrust on the child and had tried his best once Arthur was in his care to allow him his youth back. Don't under estimate how hard it was for Arthur to step out of the role he'd been cast in since he was a little boy. Told to have no tears, no whining or crying, no fear, no playing even," Danse sighed.

"But Eve... she could make him be himself. The real Arthur inside the man who was named as Elder too young. That's why he tried to find her so bintently when she vanished," Danse said quietly. "If he has a glimmer of a chance to pardon her, he will take it. That's why we need to do this. I can't because of obvious reasons but you two... I need you to do this for me."

"Did she murder them?" Nate's voice broke the uneasy silence that had fallen.

"She saved the Brotherhood, Nate," Danse answered resolutely. "I know that now that I've had some time to speak with her again. It was a thankless task Eve was faced with but she did what she knew was right. She knew the moment she lifted her weapons against some of the most respected members of our chapter that there was no turning back but she did it anyway. For the Brotherhood... for Arthur. It was because she believed and still believes that we are the best hope for the wasteland and it's people that she became the necessary evil."

"That's very poetic, Danse, but doesn't answer my question."

His friend sighed again. "You see the problem is that you both are so young in the Brotherhood. You didn't know the people involved, the cast of players that this revolved around. As much as I'd like to tell you the tale, I think you'd understand it better when you see it from Eve's point of view."

Nate folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. "That's a very nice way of making us do your bidding. You know I underestimated your ability to emotionally manipulate."

"I feel less guilty about it now that I know you're on board!" Danse chuckled.

* * *

"Handcuffs, huh?" Eve mused as she flexed her hands bound within the metal rings.

It was early the next day and they prepared for their journey back out to the Commonwealth proper. Haylen was already aboard the Vertibird which was prepped and ready for their departure.

Nate stared at Eve intently, the fading bruise on his face reminding him with its dull ache of how dangerous this seemingly slight woman could be.

"Necessary. As it stands I doubt I'll be able to convince Arthur that I subdued you."

Eve twisted the metal idly. "I'll tell him I surrendered again. Just needed to get Owyn to safety before I faced the trial. He can blow a fuse at me. Right... are you ready?"

Nate sniffed. "Are you? We'll need to make a stop at Goodneighbour before-"

"No," Eve interrupted. "Straight to the Prydwen. Once there, you'll inform Arthur of technology that you'd heard of within Goodneighbour that may help in the trial - Arthur will bite anyway once he knows of it's capabilities. He'll order a detachment under your command to reclaim the tech along with anyone capable of using the device. While you're completing that task, I'll be kept in the brig to wait."

"You'll be at risk."

"Other way around," Eve snorted. "I'll be waiting for them. Be warned. Your trip to Goodneighbour may not be an easy task and not just because of what you need to accomplish. Be prepared for sabotage. Prepare for even your team to turn on you."

Nate saw a haunted look cross Eve's face. "Personal experience?"

The young woman idly touched the vibrant scar that split her right brow and down her cheek. "You could say that. Don't turn your back, Sentinel. Not for one second."

Before Nate could press any further, Eve heaved herself into the waiting Vertibird.

"Let's go," she barked out while Haylen, already secured in her seat, merely shrugged.

Nate piled in, said his quick goodbyes to Danse before sealing the door shut.

They set out for home.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The Open Maw of Chaos

Eve seemed remarkably calm.

After being dropped off by their Vertibird not far from Nordhagan beach, Haylen and Nate had led the way back across the desolate streets and overgrown patches to the Brotherhood outpost at the airport.

Once there, contact was made with the Prydwen and they in turn had to just wait.

Eve was seated back in the makeshift brig with hands still cuffed and the gates firmly locked. She was so at ease that she stretched out on the narrow and hard mattress that had double duty as both seat and bed.

Haylen and Nate weren't in quite the same mood.

The scribe was petrified of what Elder Maxson would say. Nate already in his mind was resolved to protect her as much as possible. In the meantime he offered small talk and whispered comforts during the long and almost torturous wait.

* * *

"Sentinel!"

Maxson's roar finally shattered the strange peace that had fallen. The Elder marched in with some of the more experienced Paladins of their chapter in lockstep and at the ready.

"Elder," Nate greeted with a nod while Haylen quickly came to his side and did the same.

Maxson ignored them both and headed past with a furious gaze set on the woman lounging in the cell.

"Where is the boy?!" he barked at Eve who barely tilted her head to look at him.

"Safe," she finally replied with no heed to the barely contained rage that seeming poured from Maxson.

"I want a location. Now."

"You're not going to get one so you're just gonna have to suck it up, Arthur."

Maxson slowly repeated his question as if she couldn't hear him the first time. "I said... Where. Is. He?"

"Go... Fuck... Yourself," Eve mocked back.

The others present all partially gaped. They'd never heard anyone completely disregard their Elder before, at least not without consequences.

Maxson snapped around and roared, "Get out! All of you!" He pointedly turned his attention to Nate. "I'll speak you and Scribe Haylen after this. Wait outside."

* * *

There was no roaring. No shouting or even a glint of the fury that the Elder had been brimming with on his arrival emerged from behind the closed doors.

As Nate and Haylen sat outside and listened, they found themselves with nothing to hear.

Whatever was being said between Maxson and Lyons it was clearly not what they had thought it would be when they had left the pair alone.

Nate glanced at the time and frowned.

It had been over an hour since they'd been ordered out and there was still no sign of Maxson.

"Haylen, you should go and grab some food," he murmured to the scribe whose stomach opportunistically choose the quietest moment to growl.

"I think Elder Maxson would have me court-martialed if I left," she joked back.

"Do you really think so harshly of me, Scribe?"

Nate and Haylen snapped to their feet, both wide eyed as Maxson emerged from the brig area before he closed the main doors behind him.

He seemed deflated. The anger was gone, replaced by a strange calm that belied the hauntedness of his eyes.

"No, Elder... it was a joke," Haylen stuttered.

"... well, the Sentinel is correct. Go and get something to eat. It's been a long day for us all. I will send for you tomorrow for the debrief."

"Yes, Elder."

Nate gave Haylen a slight smile and a wink to try and reassure her before the scribe finally left him alone with Maxson.

* * *

"Elder, abou-"

"Stop. Eve has taken full responsibility for your failures. She tells me that you know where Owyn is."

"... I do."

Maxson took a moment to collect himself. "Tell me then. Where is he?"

"He's... he's with the Brotherhood, Elder. The Commonwealth Brotherhood chapter out in the Glowing Sea. Elder Jericho Lyons protects him."

"And have you seen this Brotherhood?"

"... yes. I've been to their base of operations. In order to find Lyons."

Nate swallowed nervously as Maxson stared intently before finally saying, "At least I know I can relatively count on your honesty, Sentinel. She told me the same."

"But if you knew then-"

"A test. To see where your loyalty lies," Maxson replied before he leaned back against the cold wall. "As much as I'd rather deal with the consequences of your choices recently, unfortunately there are more important things at hand then your lack of discipline. I will be reaching out to my fellow Elder when it's prudent to do so. But for now, Goodneighbour is your new destination. Eve has spoken to me of the tech within the place. Had I known just how powerful and dangerous that technology was, I would have ordered it removed and added to our catalogues for safekeeping far earlier."

"Dangerous?"

Maxson raised his eyebrows in faint disbelief. "Do you not see, Sentinel? Imagine our brothers and sisters in the field being captured and probed for information in regards to our current status. They've been trained to withstand degrees of torture but not devices that can roam through your mind and pull the memories out for public consumption."

"I see your concerns now, Elder," Nate replied with a slight nod. "I'd prefer if violence wasn't necessary. Dr Amari's a good person at heart. I'd like to try and persuade her to the Brotherhood's ideals."

"The tech is useless without someone who knows how to use it. Dr. Amari's long term cooperation was always going to be part of your mission."

Nate rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I imagine then that this is all in aid of the trial?"

"It must happen, Sentinel. A jury of her peers has been formed and will convene in the next three days. If the technology that Eve spoke of is to have any impact on the outcome, then you need to have back here in two."

"Understood. Elder... what happened in there? I mean it almost seems like you want to help her?"

Maxson's face was like stone with no hint of any emotion. "I want the truth. While Eve's memories may not be complete and will likely be biased towards her own viewpoint, we will utilize what we currently know as having happened to either confirm or deny the veracity of them. There are people here, Sentinel, that would gleefully string her up from the nearest pole and watch the life choke out of her. And at this moment in time they have every right. But before I allow any such retribution I need this to be at least beyond reasonable doubt."

"Like Danse?" Nate muttered.

Maxson's eyes narrowed. "The synth was revealed by the Institute records and our own subsequent investigation into his DNA profile maintained by the Brotherhood. His decision to abscond merely confirmed what we already knew for certain. Danse wasn't judged purely on what the Institute's data said and there was no reasonable doubt left."

* * *

Maxson flicked his gaze at the distant figure of Kells who was fast approaching. An unusual sight considering how little he ever left the Prydwen. He knew why the Lancer Captain was here.

"Leave on your mission, Sentinel. Inform Ingram of the order. She'll assign you a team for the task. Now, go. You have two days," Maxson barked while keeping his attention on the man approaching.

Kells arrived just in time to watch as the Sentinel disappeared out of the building and into the blinding light of day.

"I hear she's come back," he finally said.

Maxson folded his arms behind his back. "And?"

"I'd like to see the traitor."

"No, Captain. You should return to the Prydwen. She and her crew surely needs your sure and steady command in times like these."

"I want to see her."

"And I said no. Don't make this an order, Captain."

Kells and Maxson stared at each other. "She abandoned you. She betrayed you. She betrayed us all."

"And she'll face trial for her treachery."

"Danse didn't. The order was given for his execution. Why not for her?"

Maxson didn't flinch. "He was a synth, the very abomination of technology we've been striving to contain. If Eve Lyons was revealed to be a synth I would order her execution just the same. But she isn't. So... she must be judged. It must be seen, Kells, by all of her former brothers and sisters that civilization still lives."

Kells shook his head before muttering some words under his breath and turning back towards the helipad without so much as a goodbye.

Maxson watched him leave with a wary look on his face.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Eve tried to nap but the bitter cold of the night caused her to shiver so hard that there was no chance of that happening.

At least it was dry here she mused to herself. Eve shrunk herself down inside her clothes to keep as much warmth in as possible.

They gave her no blankets. She should have expected it but still somehow she was surprised that they didn't even toss in a couple of raggedy sheets at least.

She tried not to think of Arthur and the pained conversation they'd had earlier. Even though he was full of anger at her, Arthur didn't allow that rage to control him as he had when they were both younger.

They spoke quietly and calmly with Eve attempting to open up about all that had happened. But he didn't believe. Not fully.

She was not surprised over his demands to see Owyn.

Long hidden but deeply fond memories of the days before her fall had surfaced as Arthur had asked about their child. He wanted to know everything about him and Eve answered every question honestly. Some things hadn't changed and Arthur's enthusiasm over their child was one of them.

His own life had been devoid of family. Having been shipped away from his parents at a young age and never really knowing them had been a source of torment for him. Especially when he'd found the messages between a mother he barely remembered and her own father describing the reasoning for his removal. Timidity. She never thought she'd ever hear anyone describe him as such.

Arthur was never timid. Calculating, thoughtful and tactical was more the words she'd use. She never fully understood why his mother had done it until that day... that day when everything became clear.

* * *

"God sake," she hissed as a particularly cold breeze flowed in through gaps in the door. She was tempted to find a way to tear open the mattress at the side and somehow squeeze in to shelter among the stuffing.

"Here."

Eve snapped upright as Arthur's deep voice echoed near the far side of her not so gilded cage.

He stood staring at her morosely with a hand through the bars offering a blanket to her.

"Thanks," she mumbled back before taking it and quickly wrapping it's softness around herself.

Arthur watched the shivers that wracked her body slow down to almost nothing. "You should have prepared better before coming here," he said thoughtfully.

"Perhaps... you do know what time it is, right?"

He nodded. "Far too early in the day."

"You always slept like a log. So grumpy when you didn't get at least 6 hours worth. But that was a few years ago now," she added before sinking back down to sit on the mattress.

Arthur gave a half smile. "I've gotten used to restless nights."

"Like this one?"

"Couldn't find rest. I thought that making sure you were still caged would ease my mind."

Eve shrugged. "Well, I'm here. Thanks for the blanket."

She lay down fully once more and closed her eyes in a vague attempt at sleep even as her every nerve tingled knowing Arthur hadn't moved from his spot.

To her surprise, she heard a faint thump and a long drawn out sigh from Arthur's throat.

Eve rolled over to face him, blinking as she spotted him seated on the ground with his back resting against the bars of her cage.

"Reckless of you," she murmured.

"Hmm?"

"To leave yourself open to a known murderer like this."

Arthur snorted. "I don't believe you'll kill me."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Not withstanding my confidence in myself, I know you won't because you love me."

Eve bit her tongue and curled up tighter within the blanket.

"You don't need to say anything. I know. I knew when I found your last gift to me," Arthur sighed.

"You found it?"

Arthur's laugh answered her.

"Actually... forget I said that. You'd be idiots if you didn't investigate where I spent time prior to everything," she grumbled.

"Didn't just find it," Arthur replied. "I've _used_ it to slaughter synth, super mutant and raider alike. She's a beautiful weapon. Tooled to perfection. Must have taken you a long time to get ready."

Eve blinked as memories flooded her of nights when she'd sneak out to work on the gift, a present for his 18th birthday. She'd left it in the workshop still needing the finishing touches with a handmade card for Arthur in her shaky writing beside it.

"She wasn't finished," Eve mumbled before rolling over to put her back to Arthur.

"Where ever did you find her?" Arthur finally asked after a moment of quiet. "A laser gatling in the Capital is far too rare."

Eve merely sighed, "You shouldn't be here. Go back to the Prydwen and sleep."

"I don't think so," came his terse reply as he got back to his feet, his hearing picking up something that she didn't.

* * *

The door into the room opened and a pair of young Knights entered before hovering uncertainly once they spotted Arthur.

"Knights... I don't believe anyone is scheduled to be in here until 0400 hours," he said in a carefully monotone voice, tactfully ignoring the deep shock that crossed their faces briefly.

"Just passing through, Elder."

"To where? This is a self contained area quite separate from the rest of the airport. There's nowhere to pass through to. And I notice the weaponry you carry. Must have cost a lot of caps. Were they traded from Proctor Teagan? I shall have to inquire from him personally. While I'm aware of the need to allow certain leniency in regards to armaments, I don't believe it's necessary to carry the level of weaponry that you both have currently - especially in a secured location such as this."

The pair glanced at each other. "We're just mistaken, Elder. Took the wrong path. Forgive us. We'll head back out."

"Patrols! Going on patrol," the other blurted out as they both quickly turned around.

Eve sat upright on the mattress and watched them leave carefully while she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself.

"They were here to kill you," Arthur said quietly.

"And you were here to stop them," she groaned as realization dawned on her. "Please... don't. Let them come for me."

She grimaced at the harsh snorting reply he gave her.

"No."

"Arthur-"

"I said no. We're not savages. The trial will go ahead. Mob justice cannot be allowed to rule."

Eve stretched back out on her mattress. "I hope your Sentinel knows what he's doing since you clearly don't."

She closed her eyes, ignoring the angry glare cast her way.

* * *

"This place... ugh. I thought Megaton back at the Capital stunk."

Knight Travis in his T-51 power armor glanced with clear disdain visible even through the helmet at the myriad ghouls and humans living in such close proximity.

"Not my favorite place I'll grant you but for the most part harmless," Nate replied. "Follow me. Do not engage in hostilities unless I say so."

The small group of Brotherhood soldiers ignored the stares and gaping mouths of the citizens as Nate pushed forward. The usual Goodneighbour security details, while often full of bravado when Nate wandered its streets alone over the Brotherhood of Steel, now were very meek in comparison when faced with a squad of their best.

Nate had just reached the familiar doors of The Memory Lounge when Hancock finally showed his face.

"Well... never thought I'd see the day that the great Brotherhood of Steel would arrive in force to Goodneighbor."

Nate sighed and turned around. "We're not here to fight. We've got business inside with Doctor Amari."

"You're making people very nervous around here and you know how I hate that."

"We'll do our business and leave. Hancock, I'm not usually one for warnings here but back off. Stay out of this one. For your own good."

"Sounds like a threat to me."

Nate with uncharacteristic intensity snarled back, "A prediction. My mission here is vital otherwise we're going to watch another war play out in the Commonwealth. One bigger than what happened with the Institute."

Hancock was soon joined by members of the security details that ran the outpost. "Disturb my peace and you'll be treated just like everyone else."

He strode away, leaving Nate shaking his head.

"Permission to execute the ghoul, sir?"

He glanced at Knight Travis who'd asked. "No. We're doing this quietly for now. Goodneighbor serves a purpose and Hancock has been instrumental in keeping the troublemakers here in line. Come on. Doc Amari is waiting."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Amari

"Doc," Nate greeted lowly shortly after stepping inside the slightly gaudy building with the bright neon sign.

The encounter with Hancock had left him in a sour mood and the doctor's reaction to seeing him didn't lessen it.

Amari pursed her lips tightly and stepped away from Irma who merely went back to her lounger and gazed at their guests impassively after overseeing the arrival of all of Nate's crew who piled in through the door behind him.

"You," Amari replied with arms folded across her chest. "Didn't think I'd see you again. Especially with these companions of yours. Did they help you destroy the Railroad?"

Nate didn't hesitate. "No offense, Doc, but the Railroad were always playing with fire. Idealistic but naive. To destroy the Institute, we needed to focus on just the one war front. The Railroad would have made it their business to interfere to save as many synths as possible. For the greater good, we did what was an unfortunate necessity."

"Justifying slaughter to yourself?"

"No. My conscious is clear. What about yours? How many of those synths you sent on their way have murdered others? How many have gone crazy when the truth of who they are filters back in? Have you done them any favors by creating fake memories?"

"Don't try to turn this on me!"

Nate waved his hand to stop Travis as from the side a loud and familiar click of a rifle being readied reached his ears.

"Doc... you're to come with us. You and the tech you have in here."

"You and what army? Your boys here won't save you from Hancock."

Nate shook his head a little. "Hancock won't interfere. He wouldn't want to bring the full force of the Brotherhood to Goodneighbor. Travis?"

"Yes, sir?"

"You know what to do. Carry out your orders. Scour this place clean of what we need then make the rest unusable to anyone else."

"... "

Nate glanced at Travis. "Did you hear me?"

"... Affirmative, Sentinel."

* * *

The fire raged.

It was an accident but Nate knew that no one would believe them even if they had all witnessed it personally.

One particularly innocuous looking but apparently volatile machine didn't react well to the planned destruction carried out by the Brotherhood and soon turned their work into something akin to damage control.

Nate stood with arms folded across his chest as what remained of the Memory Lounge burned to the ground while the denizens of Goodneighbor watched the flames roar into the sky.

Shortly after the accident, the Brotherhood team he had with him immediately severed the building's connections to those around it. At great cost too with more than a few burns and other injuries reported. Their work was not in vain and now at least the fire was contained to one building and not the whole block.

Amari was long gone, leaving the town with hands bound and struggling as Travis and others carried with them the schematics, machinery and tech files from the now smouldering ruin of a building.

"What happened to you?!" Irma screamed as she lunged at Nate before being held back by Hancock who seemed to have expected this turn of events from how he wasn't currently attempting to kill Nate.

"Life happened," Nate snorted back, a deep cold that had festered in his heart ever since he had first thawed out in the Vault to find his entire world changed now emerging and suddenly making what he really wanted clear to him. "Times are changing. Order is returning. And like it or not, I'm gonna drag every goddamn one of you back into civilization. The lawlessness of the Commonwealth is over. The Brotherhood is here. Get used to it."

* * *

"Never seen you so, well, harsh before, sir."

Nate kept his gaze out the open door of the Vertibird, staring at Amari sitting unhappily in another which was flying in formation with them.

"Just after realizing my place, Travis."

"I know but normally you advocate for understanding and-"

"AND today I didn't feel like having to argue and explain every goddamn thing I do!" Nate barked. "The wasteland is changing. It has to because this mess can't be forever and so help me we are going to be at the forefront of it!"

Travis tilted his head with a strange gleam in his eye. "A nation once more? The Brotherhood doesn't engage in state building. Elder Lyons wanted that and you've seen what happened to him."

Nate set his jaw and kept his gaze on the fast moving landscape below while remaining silent.

"Sentinel... I'd like to offer an opportunity."

The hair on the back of Nate's neck pricked up as he suddenly knew what Travis was about to say.

"What sort of one, Travis?"

"To meet like-minded people, sir. It would have to be discreet. Would that be something that would interest you?"

"Brotherhood?"

"... not quite. A brotherhood of sorts. When you have time, think over what I said. There is absolutely a place for someone of your caliber among us."

* * *

"How long will it take to put together?"

Elder Maxson cast a critical eye over the schematics while Nate and Ingram hovered nearby. Eve was still in her cell, stretched out with a blanket over her while she watched the small meeting taking place next to her prison with faint interest.

Maxson refused to leave the vicinity for reasons he similarly refused to disclose which is why it was taking place there in the first place.

"Tomorrow morning if I work non-stop through the night," Ingram replied eagerly.

"Get to it then," Arthur replied as he handed back the technical documents.

"Yes, Elder."

Nate stood by as Ingram left hurriedly. As soon as they were relatively alone, he quietly murmured, "May we speak in private, Elder?"

Maxson frowned slightly before motioning to the last remaining Paladins that they were to leave.

Once gone, Nate immediately blurted out, "I was approached with an offer by someone within the Brotherhood I've never thought... sir, I believe what Eve said is true. Both in the past and currently."

"What do you mean by an offer?"

"Only to meet people with apparently similar views to mine. It sounded more like a recruitment pitch, sir."

Maxson's face fell. "Did they tell you who for?"

"No but I don't think it could really be for anyone else."

Eve sat up on the mattress and sighed. "I really had failed back then," she muttered more to herself than the others.

Maxson and Nate both heard her muffled words and gave the prisoner their full attention.

"Eve-" Arthur started to say when she quickly interrupted.

"I failed, Arthur. I was your Sentinel and I couldn't... I thought I had done enough. They'll come for me. I need you to let them, Arthur."

"No."

Eve got to her feet. "Elder Maxson," she barked out resolutely. "Your duty is to preserve the Brotherhood of Steel and it's ideals. My last duty as your Sentinel was to eliminate the sickness within that was corrupting it. Let me finish the task I started."

"I said no."

Eve strolled up the bars of her cell and fixed a cold glare at Maxson.

"I'm going to kill every god damn one of them or die in the attempt. Now either you help me or get out of my way. Those traitors... those spreading the Enclave's corruption among the Brotherhood are dead men walking."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The Trial

"I won't do this!"

Maxson however was unfazed by Amari's indignation and anger. "Doctor Amari, we'd prefer you to be a willing participant. The Sentinel has disclosed to me the full brief of what happened in Goodneighbor and I'd like to take the opportunity to apologize for the destruction of the building and of the remaining tech. However, it was done with the best of intentions. You were playing with fire, Doctor. Be glad it was the Brotherhood who intervened. I assure you there are others in the wasteland who would not be so mindful of the citizens of Goodneighbor as we were."

Amari was silent, merely glaring at Nate who was as impassive as the Elder addressing her.

"You will be fairly compensated for the losses you incurred and can leave if you help us with this one task."

"But not leave with my technology," Amari spat out.

"Your technology?" Maxson queried lightly. "Doctor, this tech belongs to another age – one which brought humanity to the edge of extinction. This belongs to all of us."

"I thought the Brotherhood didn't share."

"We safeguard and control. It was doctors and scientists like yourself that allowed things to go as far as it did. When the bombs fell, do you think the people outside the vaults were grateful for their advances? Or did they rue the day that they put their fate into the hands of others? As hard as this may seem to you, if our zealousness in removing the toxic influence of uncontrolled technology stops one more small child unknowingly wandering the wasteland with a mini-nuke in their hands then so be it."

Amari swallowed nervously. "So if I do this thing for you, you'll let me leave?"

Maxson glanced at Nate before giving the doctor a tight smile. "With caps in hand, Doctor. Our vertibirds would deliver you to whatever location that you wished. Well, within reason."

"Your word on this?"

"My promise," Maxson replied.

* * *

Eve was quiet.

Morning had arrived in all it's glory along with the news that Ingram had completed what she needed to and now she was joined by Amari in working out the last kinks.

Nate now sat where Arthur had previously; the Sentinel taken over from his Elder in watching over Eve's cell.

"They tell me you were from the Commonwealth."

Eve glanced over at Nate. "I was. Born and half raised here."

"Where? If you don't mind me asking."

She leaned back against the cold bars of the cell. "Not far from Quincy. My grandmother had wanted us to live in the settlement itself but my mother was too stubborn. They were too alike. I'm more like my father. My hair's a dead giveaway on that score. The Lyons blood runs strong. My sister Sarah used to say that."

"Heh. Quincy, eh? I know a few people from there. Survived the attack on that place awhile back."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. They're holed in Sanctuary Hills."

Eve blinked. "Really? Is there a Mama Murphy among them?"

"Ha! There is! I mean she is! You know her?"

"She's my grandmother," Eve replied sedately.

Before Nate could get his brain over the shock of the simple reply she gave him, Cade arrived slightly out of breath.

With no greeting, Cade simply stated worriedly, "It's time."

* * *

Nate kept his gun close to hand.

Eve was forced to walk though a milling crowd of onlookers; brothers and sisters of Steel who all wished to get a glimpse of the great traitor they had heard about.

In spite of their contempt and muttered insults, Eve kept her head high. She broke her stride just once as one of the young women in the crowd rushed her in a flurry of curses and threats.

Before Nate could react, Eve had merely sidestepped before throwing her hands and the handcuffs they were restrained in over the attacker's head.

She yanked backwards hard and caught her opponent on the throat. With remarkable poise and strength, Eve flipped the young woman over and tossed her into the dirt.

After freeing her hands, Eve adjusted the handcuffs once more on her wrists before setting off seemingly unconcerned in the direction of the airport section that would serve as her courtroom.

* * *

Those in judgement were already present. Nate recognized a number of the higher ranking Paladins among them.

Arthur stood over-viewing the work and the technology now assembled while Ingram guided him through it.

The murmurings and laughter that had filled the room disappeared as Nate kept a firm grip of her upper right arm, keeping her from venturing too far from him. He tried to not make eye-contact with Captain Kells although the man was glaring emphatically at Eve.

She on the other hand had no issue in staring back just as intensely.

"Paladin Crosse!" Maxson barked out. "Read out the charges."

While Crosse droned out the crimes, Eve was shuffled over to the small capsule that Nate recognized as similar to what had once occupied space in the Memory Lounge. She sank into it, laying back as Amari went over last minute checks.

"-edin, Lori Becker, Diana Kells and Joseph Westcott; with the willful destruction of data repository units 89, 90 and 91; and finally, with the arson of and subsequent irreparable damage done to the Citadel Laboratory. How do you plead?"

"Guilty."

Nate glanced worriedly at Maxson who on the other hand seemed nonplussed by Eve's admission of guilt. The rest of those present were suddenly caught up in flurries of excitement. Nate knew what they were talking about even if he could make out the words clearly. Surely there was no need for a trial if she admitted her guilt.

Maxson merely raised a hand high and silence once more fell.

"We still must review the evidence. While she had admitted guilt, she claims that there were extenuating circumstances. I must be clear. If you do not find sufficient rationale for the acts she committed then you must vote to execute her. However if there is doubt, vote to acquit."

He nodded at Amari and Ingram. "Please begin."

The doctor stared at him. "I can't... pick and choose. We may have to go though a number of memories before we hit the ones you require. Not to disparage Ingram's work but this version you've created is not as precise as what I had in Goodneighbor."

"Go ahead, Doctor. So long as we reach what we need."

Eve's chair lowered backwards and the chamber sealed while Amari started to go through what she could. A number of small projectors on the floor activated and started to display what Amari could see in her console.

"Right... here we go," Amari said as she activated the first one she found.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Memories

"What are we seeing, Doctor?"

Nate's question went unanswered for a moment as Amari hurriedly went over what the console was telling her in strands of broken code.

"A memory," she finally replied. "Early one. Damn. Thought I'd found the correct thread. Give me a moment."

Just to Nate's side, Maxson moved through the faint outlines; the holographic images of others long gone but still vivid as dark shadows in Eve's memories.

* * *

A younger Eve - no more than seven Nate guessed - was naked, bound so tightly with rope that the course threads left red sores on her flesh while she struggled to breathe through the thick cloth they'd shoved in her mouth as a gag.

Nate glanced over at Maxson, watching the Elder as he got to see firsthand what he'd surely been told about by Eve herself.

The girl was dragged by a thick chain connected to the leather collar tied around her slim pale throat into a sandy pit surrounded by high walls. As she peered up at the unseen denizens who could be heard.

"Christ... it's a slave auction," Nate murmured to himself as the noise of the phantom crowd grew louder.

"Lot 72 today. Fine young girl fresh from the wastes! It's rare to find one like this, ladies and gentlemen. She's got strong limbs, body and back. Health guaranteed by our medical staff! Perfect for hard labor but still soft enough for more delicate services! Unspoiled as all our wares are. Family won't be an issue. None left according to and of course guaranteed by our suppliers," the announcer of this hideous market spoke in a carefully rehearsed salesman's pitch. "Starting price is 500 caps."

Nate watched stony faced as a small bidding war broke out before the silently crying child was sold for the less than princely sum of 1000 caps.

"You've gotten a real bargain, sir!" the announcer chuckled happily as the caps jingled on the table while Eve's new owner, a tall hulking man with scraggly beard and raider leathers, dragged the naked scrawny child away.

The sales room disappeared, replaced instead with a cart that Eve was helplessly tossed on to and from there dumped unceremoniously into the heavy wooden crate with thin gaps forged by the slow rotting of the planks. Eve's breathing was rapid, almost choking her in the panic that flooded her system as her new "owner" took a good long look at the goods he'd purchased.

"Pretty," the man rumbled, stroking a finger along her cheek before he slammed the lid down and locked Eve in darkness.

She tried her best. Eve did everything she could to free herself only to find all her hard work gone when she was suddenly shunted forward hard, hitting her head off the splintering wood of her prison as the cart she was loaded on finally started to move off.

They hadn't moved more than a few meters when she stopped her struggle as her ears picked up the distant but familiar noise that was approaching. All who observed this memory from Eve's childhood knew what that sound was.

"Vertibirds," Nate mumbled to himself as it became clear that the aircraft were nearly overhead.

* * *

Then came the angry shouts and gunfire.

The tiny slits of the wooden crate became filled with blinding flashes of light as the noise from outside became more intense and so close that Eve's panic started to raise once more.

The cart she was on came to a sudden halt. Eve froze at the muffled noise of a struggle – the man who'd bought her was roaring, screaming so loud that she couldn't quite decipher what he was saying.

Her crate was shoved roughly onto its side, tossing Eve around in the compact space. She somehow managed to shuffle onto her side before peering up at what was now the ceiling.

The light that drifted in was suddenly cut off as a heavy weight landed on the crate, causing the already strained planks to groan and creak.

Harsh rasping breaths flooded through the tiny gaps as deep red blood started to drip in and land on Eve's skin like a warm shower. The breathing came to a stop and the weight that had caused the crate to groan under the strain was lifted off.

The crate was roughly dragged back upright before its lid was pried opened.

Eve, naked and now smeared in blood, smiled as best she could once her eyes focused to the light and she could see her rescuer.

The newcomer, clad in T-51 power armor that was covered in Brotherhood markings that clearly marked the soldier out as having the rank of Paladin, pulled her out while his helmet-distorted voice rasped out comforting words.

"It's alright. We got you. Your uncle's been searching for you. Your father's waiting, little one. You're going home."

The Brotherhood Paladin carefully unbound the ropes and removed the cloth gag before finding a large enough piece of blanket from the back of the cart to cover her. Once wrapped, Eve was picked up and carried to the waiting vertibird.

* * *

"Shit!" Amari cursed, disturbing Nate from the horror of what he had witnessed. "Stupid thing is locked. It's gonna skip-"

Just as she muttered the words, they came true and the scene before them changed.

* * *

The Citadel with its Brotherhood of Steel flags and banners flying in the breeze towered above the small Eve who was practically swaddled in thick traveling rags.

A hand landed on her shoulder belonging to the tall man whose identity was concealed behind clothing similar to her own.

He stood as a watchful protector at her side, heavy laser armaments over his shoulder along with supplies they clearly needed on the long journey south.

"Brotherhood," Maxson murmured as he recognized that this man was not quite like a true waste-lander.

"She didn't make that journey alone. Why was that detail left out of the reports?" Nate replied as they watched Eve gave her companion a wary smile before she slowly took the first steps towards Brotherhood soldiers on guard outside the main gate.

"An excellent question," the young Elder remarked, clearly as in the dark as Nate was over why this unknown figure had no mention.

There was no sound for some reason – something Nate suspected was due to the malfunctioning machine that Amari was still fighting with.

Instead they had to witness in silence the young girl in rags talk to the only Paladin out-front who left after a few words was exchanged.

Shortly after, the main gates swung open once more and an elderly balding man who looked a lot like Elder Jim Lyons but dressed in a concealing long grey coat emerged with a beautiful young woman who herself was strikingly like the older Eve at his side. She wore power armor bearing the Lyons Pride logo that Nate had become familiar with.

Elder Owyn Lyons knelt before his youngest daughter who immediately stepped back from him wearily and instead gripped the hand of the concealed protector who stood with her.

They were talking. Lyons directed his words sometimes to Eve and other times to her companion who had no hesitation in his answers while the child said nothing but stared.

Eventually Owyn reached out his hand to the young girl with a faint smile which became broader when Eve tentatively took it and allowed him to led her inside.

* * *

"Okay. Got it working now... wait. Damn it," Amari hissed out as the projectors stuttered before showing them something new.

* * *

"I didn't do it!" Eve shouted at the young Arthur, the two youngsters in a blazing row in the middle of a long bleak corridor with decaying military propaganda posters on the walls.

"You did! I just saw you with it in my rooms!"

"You saw me putting it back! I didn't take it in the first place!"

"Stop lying and just tell the truth!" Arthur snapped. "At least apologize for what you did!"

Eve roared, "I DIDN'T TAKE YOUR STUPID STORIES! John and his asshole friends did. I got them back for you, idiot."

"Why should I believe you?!"

"BECAUSE I CAN'T READ!"

Arthur's face dropped and he stalled completely.

Eve took in deep heaving breaths. "I can't read so why would I take your stupid stories!"

She spun on her heel and took off, barrelling down the long shadowy hallway as she desperately wiped the tears from her cheeks.

* * *

Nate glanced at Maxson who seemed unfazed by the brief glimpse at what had been a moment in his past.

"AH! Think I've got it back!" Amari crowed as she and now Ingram fought the console together.

* * *

Eve emerged from the small broken doorway and stepped lightly across the slightly unstable bridge of planks and rocks to where her target sat despondently with legs dangling over the wall's edge.

"You're worried. Not sure what about. Who else could bring the mighty Brotherhood of Steel to victory against the green scourge of the wasteland other than the descendant of the great Roger Maxson himself!" Eve intoned dramatically as she strolled up to Arthur who sat alone viewing the expanse of the Capital wasteland from the highest watch of the Citadel.

The bleak look on teenage Maxson's stubble covered face disappeared as he spotted Eve.

"Heh," he chuckled as she slipped into the free space beside him, dangling her slimmer but shorter legs next to his. "Elder Morrison would be deeply offended at your imitation."

"Not a bad mockery though."

"Too accurate."

Eve beamed at the praise before she stared out over the ruins of the Capital as Arthur had been doing before her arrival.

"If I ran away, would you come with me?" Arthur blurted out, the words tumbling from his lips in such a rush that it took Eve a few seconds to really process what he'd said.

The delay in her reply, although only seconds, was enough to cause Maxson to back track.

"Forget I said anything," he mumbled before he went back to silently staring at the wastes around them.

"I'd go with you."

Arthur's head snapped around. "Really?"

"Sure! We'd kick ass. There'd be no raider or mutant safe from us while we crossed the wasteland. Lyons and Maxson would clear this place up!"

She beamed at her friend, the smile getting wider as he laughed at her enthusiasm before he suddenly shot out his arms and dragged her into a hug.

"I'm... I'm scared, Evie," he whispered.

Eve, getting over her surprise at Arthur's embrace and subsequent emotional confession, gently returned his hug.

"I know. And that's okay. Fear keeps people alive."

"I'm not supposed to feel anything."

"Bullshit," Eve murmured. "Don't start listening to Preacher Morrison, Arthur."

They parted from each other. Eve gently cupped his cheek with her hand. "You can do this. You're ready. And if you don't think you can... well, I'm ready to go with you. Just say the word. The two of us against the world. Those monsters out there would have no chance."

* * *

There was silence as that moment froze as if time itself had stopped.

Nate glanced at the older Maxson who stood impassively while he stared at the younger version of himself.

Amari and Ingram had both stopped in their own work which had succeeded in returning control to the console.

"Sir..." Ingram started to say.

"Is there a reason as to why you are not proceeding, Proctor?" Maxson barked, seemingly unconcerned that this private moment of vulnerability was exposed for all to see.

"... I'll get right on it, Elder."

Nate walked the few short steps it took to reach Maxson who had returned his gaze to the young not-quite-a-couple who were frozen in time staring into each others eyes with a ruined city filling the landscape.

"Sir, are you okay with this?"

"With what, Sentinel?"

"This... exposure. Maybe we should allow Ingram and Amari to work privately to find the memories and only reveal what is needed publicly."

Maxson took a deep breath. "I appreciate your concern but don't think that I am or ever was ashamed of my humanity."

Nate merely nodded, stepping back from Maxson with a new found respect for the younger man who knew for certain that his most private moments that he shared with Eve was likely to be exposed to those assembled and yet didn't care.

"Sir, we think we found it."

Nate and Maxson both turned their heads to Ingram who waited with Amari patiently.

"Well, let's see it then."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Her Father's Daughter

"She's a fine looking woman," Eve remarked lightly in good humor as she joined the now Elder Maxson at his usual viewpoint over the training yards.

He was not yet 17 – another two months would sort that – and it showed in the young face that he was trying to hide beneath the beard he was growing which would become almost a permanent feature in the future.

"At least, that's what the boys downstairs are yammering on about," she added.

"I'm sure you set them straight about my future wife."

"Oh, of course," Eve chuckled. "Told them that they'll need their Elder's permission to start drooling over her."

Elder Stevens had arrived after a long journey from the west. In tow was his eldest daughter and retinue, all for a marriage arranged to strengthen both families.

The fear of losing the Maxson bloodline completely – something very possible with only one heir to the name currently living - had really driven this union, one Arthur agreed to after much discussion with advisors.

Arthur, having seen enough of the new arrivals to the Capital wasteland and the Citadel in particular, finally tore his gaze away and set it instead on Eve.

"She'll give me strong children," he said in a strange, almost disconnected manner.

"Looks like it. She's healthy. Strong looking. From what I've heard, she's extremely competent in combat. She'll be a good example to your children and to the rest of the chapter."

"Indeed," he rumbled before huffing, "I best go and greet them. Joining me?"

Eve shrugged. "I don't think so. Got stuff to do. Mission prep for the long haul mission tomorrow top of the list."

They stared at each other intently before Arthur nodded slightly. "I'll expect you to attend the meal later. No excuses."

* * *

It was nice.

Awkward in some ways. Eve found herself under intense scrutiny from the newcomers so tried her damnedest to keep from being too forward or noticeable in her replies.

But Arthur constantly turned to her for one thing or another. More often than not, he would drag her into conversations she had no place in.

When the meal had ended and the guests mingled leisurely with the fine wine Elder Stevens had brought from the west, Eve attempted to escape only to find herself cornered by the man himself.

"Sentinel! Please, wait!"

"Elder Stevens," she greeted warmly.

"My... when they told me your father had another child, one with a wastelander too, I had my doubts. But looking at you now, I see only Owyn's features staring back at me."

"Thank you, Elder."

Stevens, still handsome in his middle age with greying temples set among chestnut colored hair, seemed a little confused at her demure answer.

"Trust me when I say, Sentinel, that having the Lyons features is no short coming."

Eve chuckled, cheeks flushing a little at his flirty comment.

"Do you have time to sit with me and talk?" he quickly followed up.

"I'm afraid I don't, Elder. Early start tomorrow."

"Shame. Well, next time."

She'd barely reached the creaking door of her sanctuary away from everyone when Eve heard her name being called.

Arthur had apparently followed her and fast too from how breathless he was.

"Shouldn't you be at the party? You know... mingling?"

"I'd wanted to speak with you before you left but imagine my surprise when I discovered you'd snuck away."

"Sneaking wasn't involved," she reprimanded lightly.

"So... what do you think?"

Eve shrugged. "Of?"

"Of Karen."

"Seems nice. Not very chatty but I'd imagine it's tough getting to know your future husband and the upper levels of his chapter at the same time."

"Hmm," Arthur replied with eyes set intently on Eve's face. "Do you believe I should go through with it?"

"Do you have a choice? Last time I checked your most pressing task is getting some private time with your new wife. The last Maxson needs to start having babies so he stops being the last."

"That is something I've been meaning to bring up. What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You're the last of the Lyons family. You need to consider the future of your family's line."

Eve blinked. "I don't think I'm gonna be much of a catch for anyone, Arthur. I'm not like you. Not born from two respectable members of the Brotherhood. My mom... she casts a large shadow," she murmured before adding with a grin, "But you know, maybe I'll find myself a fine upstanding wasterlander and let him have his wicked way with me!"

Arthur didn't smile. Didn't so much as smirk. So the attempt at humor died and Eve murmured "Goodnight" before slipping into her room.

* * *

"I don't understand," Eve replied with confusion etched on her face.

Elder Stevens had cornered her shortly after her return from her week long mission to the far reaches of the Capital wasteland.

A brief but necessary stopover at Megaton had broken up the nights of sleeping rough out in the wilds. She'd returned with all her crew and gear intact and the mission completed. No small feat and one she was particularly proud of.

"It's very simple. I'm offering you a place with the Brotherhood in Lost Hills on the west coast."

"I'm grateful but-"

"I've seen how he looks at you."

Eve blinked. "Who-"

"Don't be dense. Young Maxson relies on your opinion, on your advice more than any of those other advisors I've seen him with. And I've seen _how_ he looks at you. I know what it is that he sees when he views you as I've seen it myself. My daughter is to take your place. She has to if this marriage is to succeed."

Eve was dumbfounded. "This is my home."

"You can make a new home in the west. Perhaps given enough time you may even be able to return here if you so wish."

"I need to think about it," she finally replied sadly, knowing that her duty was to say goodbye to everything that had become family to her as Elder Stevens demanded.

She had disturbed rest that night but she did eventually find sleep, at least enough to tide her over for the rest of the day but as a consequence it was noon before she woke.

Eve stumbled out of her quarters, blinking at the intense light of day that flooded through a broken window that faced the yards.

Blearly she glanced outside, surprised to see Elder Stevens, his daughter and the rest of their team apparently mid-departure.

"Huh," she mumbled. "That's weird."

"What is?"

Eve nearly jumped out of her skin at Arthur's soft question. He sat in a small alcove not far from her door.

"Elder Stevens and Karen. Where are they going?"

"They're departing for the west coast."

"Karen seeing them off?"

"She's leaving with them."

Eve was stumped. "Oh..."

"Surely you've got better questions than that," he chuckled, getting to his feet and strolling over to join her watching the procession that was departing.

"I thought you were getting married."

"I thought so too. Then her father attempted to undermine my authority by having my Sentinel removed to the west coast."

Eve winced. "He just asked. I hadn't said yes or no yet."

"And when he didn't get an immediate reply, he contacted Lost Hills in an attempt to force the issue. I've dealt with it and with Elder Stevens. There will be no marriage. You should have come and informed me after what he said to you last night."

"I'm sorry, Arthur."

"Don't be. It could have been a greater loss."

Eve flushed red as she felt more than saw his gaze land on her. "You better be sure you're not making a mistake. Karen would have been a perfect fit. For here and for you."

"I decide what fits. Not anyone else."

* * *

Eve moved her thumb gently, skimming it's flesh over the warming metal indentations that spelled out the name of her half-sister.

Sarah's metal tags were all she had left. Her holo ones were placed with those of others who had passed away within the safe vaults of the scribes, to be kept forever in remembrance.

Her free hand skimmed low, landing on the gentle swell of her abdomen that was starting to grow larger. A very real reminder that she wasn't exactly living just for herself anymore.

"Can't sleep?"

Eve turned around, swinging her legs back onto the bed, and smiled at Arthur who had somehow woken from what she had almost classed as a coma earlier when he didn't wake when her new rifle project had slipped free from the cupboard and hit the floor in a terrible smash.

"Just thinking."

Arthur dragged himself upright, grinning sheepishly as Eve immediately flung his arm over her shoulders and curled into his side.

"I shudder to think what's been going through your head at this godforsaken hour," he mumbled in a yawn.

"The mission tomorrow for one thing."

She felt his body tense, muscles that had once been lax now tightening. "We need to discuss that plan again."

"I know. After tomorrow."

* * *

"Knight Williams! Do not advance! That position is crawling with mutants!"

Eve barrelled over rubble and through trenches, desperately going from cover to cover.

"Acknowledged. Orders, ma'am?"

She dived low, just avoiding the line of sight of one mutant casually carrying a mini-gun.

"Pull back to the bridge. Dig in. Initiate Taylor and myself will bring the party to you."

Eve glanced behind her to the young man hauling his terrified self across the same path she'd run.

"You alright?" she queried. Taylor was too breathless to reply so instead nodded. "Good. We got a bit further to go."

They dodged and weaved through the cityscape, staying just far enough ahead of the super mutants on their tail to avoid getting caught while still acting as bait. Their pursers had no concept of the trap their prey was leading them into.

As Eve approached the lonely bridge they'd passed earlier that day, she could make out the rest of her team firmly bedded in for the fight.

She grabbed Taylor's arm, dragging him in one last burst of energy into a full sprint towards their teammates before shunting them both sideways as they dived into empty rubble strewn reception of an barely standing building to avoid the incoming fire.

They sat gasping for air as outside the fight was being won by the Brotherhood who were cutting down the mutants as they rushed them across the open road.

"Not so bad, Initiate," Eve chuckled as she turned to check on Taylor, "you'l-"

Eve suddenly flung herself backwards as Taylor's jagged butchers knife swung down and attempted to lodge itself in her skull. It skimmed her forehead, over her right eye and down her cheek, leaving vivid red blood pouring.

Eve didn't even have time to react to the pain as Taylor rushed her, desperate to finish the job. Mid dodge, she flicked out her own knife – a gift from Sarah a long time ago – and, after a particularly wild swing from the Initiate, sliced through the young man's tendons holding the weapon.

Taylor screamed, barely recognizing how fast Eve followed up by doing the same to his other arm.

As the firefight still raged outside, Eve slumped against the wall and desperately attempted to stop the bleeding that almost blinded her. A couple of stimpaks later and she could just about view the world again through two eyes.

She set her gaze against Taylor who was crying, knowing what was to come.

"I'm sorry," he blubbered at her. "it was an order."

"From who?"

"I can't... I won't say!"

Eve shook her head before she shoved her knife through the young man's forehead.

His death was instant, a mercy that Eve always gave even if she particularly hated the person she killed. Sarah had taught her well and one thing her sister insisted on was making kills as quick and painless as possible.

She quickly rifled through his pockets, desperate to find some clue to who had ordered this. She dragged out a small holotape and though that found her death warrant.

One signed by Arthur Maxson.

Eve stalled, staring at the authorization code she knew was his. She was so engrossed that she didn't notice the noise outside had ceased.

"Initiate Taylor! Is the job done?"

She froze, blood almost curdling at the voice calling from outside.

* * *

"I did not sign that!"

Maxson had gone from detached viewer to fury in a split second. He poured over the tiny screen in Eve's hand that was displaying the order and his authorization of it.

"Elder-" Nate started to say before being quickly silenced as Arthur roared, "I DID NOT ORDER HER EXECUTION! This... someone has done this!"

He snapped his attention to Quinlan. "If this is true then the order will be buried among the records. Go and bring it here. Order code is MG7789501-25."

"Of course, Elder."

Nate stepped over to Maxson who was almost beside himself in rage, something he'd never personally seen since joining the Brotherhood.

"Elder, you need to calm."

"She thought I ordered her execution, Sentinel. She thought I wanted her and... she thought I wanted them dead. Is that why she ran? Is that why she abandoned everything after-"

"The answer is here, Arthur," Nate replied softly. "But we need to continue with this to find it."

Nate nodded at Amari who quickly activated the machine once more.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Pride

The machine stuttered. Or maybe Eve's mind did as it took them back to a different era to where a younger version of herself, heavily scuffed and covered in dust stood in the middle of the Brotherhood's Citadel training grounds with her half-sister towering above her.

"-and if you ever should be so unfortunate as to find yourself going against multiple foes, all heavily armed and ready to kill you," Sarah Lyons remarked to Eve who peered up at her attentively, "then remember this stance, this series of moves, and don't hold back. The moment you hesitate you're finished. Now, back into position! We're going though this again and again until it's as natural to you as breathing."

* * *

That world dissolved into light and flecks of color before another world rebuilt itself in the former's place.

* * *

Eve shoved the holotape she held in a crushing grip into her pocket. That thing would have to wait. She quickly picked up Taylor's laser rifle, took the ammo before breaking the emitter and tossing the now useless weapon away.

Eve pressed herself back against the wall, secluded in darkness before fishing in her jacket pocket for something particularly special, a device she'd found on a trip she and Arthur had taken into the depths of an old military shelter just outside the Capital wasteland. She shoved in her mouth a strange soother like device before tossing small speaker to the far side of the room – clearly attempting to get it as far away from her current position as possible.

"I'm afraid Taylor isn't going to reply, Knight," she mouthed silently around the device held firmly between her lips while her voice echoed out perfectly from the distant speaker which was swallowed up in darkness.

She immediately heard the faint murmurs of alarm before Knight Williams slowly started to creep passed where she was hidden with his weapon at the ready.

"Ma'am, everything's under control outside. Where are you?" he said carefully, giving Eve false words to lull her into complacency.

She watched him indicate to the others who were following him in to fan out, what had been her crew all ready for war. Ready to kill her.

Eve activated the stealth-boy she had on her arm before slipping out past the last of her former team who were stepping inside.

Once out, she ruefully took out the mini-nuke she'd robbed from a super mutant earlier that day.

"Knight Williams," she said around the mouthpiece as she activated the bomb. "It was a pleasure to have worked with you."

Eve quickly activated the small but powerful device before she tossed in as her former comrades within the building started opening fire on shadows as they thought they spied a glimpse of her. She dived behind the nearest pile of crumbling brick and mortar just before the nuke detonated. The fire and light burned her even from where she was cowering. When it had passed, Eve spat out the mouthpiece and quickly pocketed it as she got back to her feet.

What remained of the building was scorched black by the nuclear fire while her former team were incinerated with barely charred remains all that remained.

She turned a hardened stare at the distant Citadel, marked out in the distance by the covering flight-path of a number of vertibirds crisscrossing the city. They all saw it. The sadness. The deep despair that crossed her face before it disappeared as Eve steeled herself.

* * *

Once more for the watchers the world dissolved just as she took her first steps forward. The light of the emitters fizzled and glitched before the world of Eve's past returned.

* * *

Getting in to the Citadel was the easy part. At least easy if you'd spent your youth there. Eve slipped through the forgotten tunnels she and Arthur had explored in depth when they were younger.

He was far too wide now to make the same journey comfortably, his frame still boyish but starting to broaden as undoubtedly his unseen father's once had but she was still slight enough. Give her another five months and she doubted she could say the same.

Crawling through the dark, avoiding the nesting mirelurks and faintly glowing radiation puddles, took its toll on her. No ghouls so that was a positive among the almost countless negative. The tunnel she finally took exited into a small room in the lower basements that was for the most part ignored by the rest of the Brotherhood due to the collapsed ceiling and floors blocking it.

The rest of her journey was now a climb which she quickly got to. She passed through entire floors fallen on each other, seeing only small fragments of what had been within as she climbed through the hole left by the A-bomb from the Great War that once had plummeted from the sky and caused the damage. The nuke hadn't exploded and her father had the thing deactivated years ago, using its radioactive material for other uses while the rest of it was assigned to scrap for repairs.

She finally dragged her weary body in through the last small gap and collapsed in exhaustion.

As Eve panted and gasped while her muscles slowly recovered, her brain finally had a chance to think on everything.

She'd been betrayed. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and grimaced as a last powerful twitch spasmed along her spine. She needed to be more careful. Slow movements from now on to keep herself from becoming bogged down in injuries. Her very survival depended on it.

Eve got to her feet gingerly and started the more dangerous part of her journey.

Slipping through the shadows unseen had been a childhood game for her. Finding new ways to sneak up on people or learning how to break into sealed rooms had all been such fun as a child when she'd sought ways to get ahead of the crowd and, if she was being particularly honest with herself, to escape the bullies that tormented her. Eve had never been so thankful that her younger self had become so adept at it.

* * *

She slipped in to the main command room where Arthur would spend most of his waking days in as he poured over what news the patrols brought back from the wasteland.

He was here. And alone too. Eve slid noiselessly into a dark corner out of Arthur's sight before she unhooked the notched knife from her belt and readied it. She'd force the truth from Arthur before she'd... she'd...

Her hand trembled and shook before it lost the weapon completely from what had once been a secure grip. Eve ducked down and captured the falling weapon before it could hit the floor. The familiar swoosh of the far door alerted her to another arriving and she quickly slipped back into the small alcove unseen to the others within the room.

"What news, Paladin?" she heard Arthur bark.

"No sign of them, sir."

"And the Sentinel? She's still not replying to the summons?"

"No, Elder."

"DAMN!" Arthur suddenly roared, slamming a fist on the table. "Its been too long. Paladin, send out the search teams. I want the wasteland scoured! Eve wouldn't be out of communication this long! Check every frequency, every damn hole in this god forsaken place!"

"Yes Sir!"

Eve watched the Paladin leave Arthur to his thoughts. He had hunched himself over a map lit up from underneath by the glowing light of the display table. Even from distance she could see that he'd marked out in red the fastest and most secure route that she would have taken her team along to reach their destination. From it, he'd started to circle and highlight any spot that might be used for cover or to hole up in if things went wrong.

Arthur rubbed his face, eyes clearly hurting following his intense viewing of the map.

She wanted so badly to go to him, to tell him that she was there and okay but fear held her back. Not fear for her but for him. Something was going on and she clearly was the target of it although she felt such relief that Arthur hadn't actually turned on her as she had thought. But... she'd killed her team and the only evidence she had that might spare her life was the warrant that was securely in her pocket. She need to figure this out before she went to him and have evidence to back up her words.

Eve finally won the battle between her broken heart and her logical mind – she slipped out and left Arthur to his thoughts.

* * *

Nate risked a glance at the Elder who seemed to have calmed significantly from his outburst having seen this particular section of Eve's memories. Sometimes he forgot that Arthur was still so young in comparison to those around him.

* * *

Eve followed a labyrinthine path that avoided patrols as she made her way to the inner sanctum of the scribes, the vast laboratory that contained all of the accumulated knowledge of the Brotherhood.

Here she'd find a way to figure out who was behind this with the warrant in her pocket being the key. If she could find some way to discover who approved it using Arthur's codes then maybe she had a chance. After seeing Arthur's current state, Eve no longer believed that he had ordered it.

While she couldn't claim to be the best at the various computers that ran the Brotherhood's operations, Eve did have some rudimentary knowledge of the systems which had been taught to her by Scribe Rothchild while he lived, a favor he'd performed for her father.

Owyn Lyons had wanted her to learn as much as possible. Eve sometimes thought that perhaps he knew that he didn't have long left and was trying somehow to make up for casting both her and her mother away. She thought of him often when alone and always with a deep heartache even with the short time that they'd had together. Sometimes she thought of what might have been if her mother hadn't left and she'd known him as Sarah once had.

Eve quickly found the older terminal that Rothchild had taught her and was overjoyed to find it free of Scribes and other personnel. She quickly slipped the holotape she'd kept at her side into the slot before her brain stalled as the terminal asked for a password.

As she stared at the words etched on the screen that had once been unrecognizable to her, she thought back to how Arthur had taught her to read and write during long hours at the Citadel and even on the tours of the wasteland they took.

He'd been so apologetic over his accusations that she'd stolen his most private documents from him and eager to teach her all he knew. Every faded signpost was a lesson, every scrap of paper a book to read or write on. Arthur opened her eyes to a world that had been hidden from her and she'd never been so grateful to anyone except... well, he was long gone even if she still thought of him often and fondly.

Eve had sworn then that whatever happened she'd do whatever it took to help Arthur even if it meant giving up her life for the Brotherhood's cause.

* * *

She never imagined that he'd want from her something other than her loyalty, that he'd want her at all.

He'd had at one stage a rotation of beautiful and accomplished women who skipped in and out of his bed but never her. She'd been strangely okay with it in spite of her feelings that she kept buried inside. He needed to make more Maxsons and if sleeping his way through almost the entire chapter was how he was going to achieve it then so be it.

Eve herself didn't hold back but kept her few liaisons private and more sedate. She didn't have nor wanted a revolving door on her bedroom. Eve hungered for intimacy, for that feeling of belonging that she once had with her mother and then her father and sister. She'd gotten close to it too before Arthur.

Eve never could stop the smile when she thought of an older lover from a year or so back.

Knight Smith who'd arrived to the Citadel with a message and delivery of technology from the West Coast Brotherhood. Originally he was meant to stay with their Scribes, a fact that Eve was particularly pleased with considering how close they had gotten to each other shortly after his arrival. But Arthur... he sent him away from the Citadel on some long-term mission south.

The fight they had over it was possibly the worst since they were young. In the end, Elder Maxson had the power and Eve had to accept the things she couldn't change. After he'd left, she'd been a ghost of herself for a time. She did her duty as always but once she was on her own time, Eve would squirrel herself away in her rooms.

Arthur eventually came to her after nearly two weeks of Eve ignoring any overtures outside of Brotherhood business and offered some slight apology before refusing to leave until she talked to him again like she used to.

He wanted their friendship back to the way it had been before Smith had arrived.

So Eve had tried. Things were still awkward in a way they had never been but they had been getting there. But everything changed after Elder Stevens had arrived and subsequently left in short order. Suddenly Arthur started expressing public interest in her far beyond the friendship that he's always professed. It hadn't taken two days before he'd made a determined and successful play for her which had left Eve dazed.

That first time had been unplanned and so strange that, although she'd wanted it, it still left her wondering if it had really happened or if she'd hallucinated everything that they'd done to each other in the hours before.

Danse had laughed at her when she confided to him privately. Called her a smart idiot if she hadn't seen this coming considering everyone else had. He'd confided to her knowledge that he'd been privy to; that part of the reason that Elder Stevens had arrived with his daughter was to prevent what some of the Council and Elders in the West could see about to happen.

* * *

She wished she could say that it through skill or instinct. Instead it was by chance that she was in the right place at the right time to overhear a conversation that was not meant for her ears. The participants thought themselves alone, hidden among the archives and not knowing of the old terminal near their chosen spot that Eve sat at.

"There's been no news in regards to that issue."

The hair on Eve's skin pricked up as she recognized the low voice of Diana Kells who was possibly one of the greatest hand-to-hand combatants the Brotherhood had ever had.

"We need it confirmed that the girl is truly dead like the rest of her family before tonight's meeting. Maxson has sent out search teams in spite of my advice. Make sure some of our own are in them."

Eve froze in place as the other deeper voice spoke before the private conversation she eavesdropped on ended as suddenly as it had begun.

"Henry Casdin," she whispered in shock.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The Wanderer

Diana Kells never knew she was being followed. Never even suspected anything abnormal as Eve became her shadow, ever faithful in her pursuit of the older woman who was still a formidable force even at her age.

Kells went about her duties, both official and unofficial tasks while Eve watched it all play out.

By the time the world was shrouded in the darkness of another night, Diana Kells had a meal with her husband and oldest son before leaving them ostensibly to go to the gym.

For a short time it appeared to Eve, that in fact, Diana Kells was heading where she'd claimed she was to her family.

But, at the last moment, she switched direction radically and doubled back the way she came.

Eve quickly followed. She flitted from shadow to shadow, dodging past the unwary as she continued her pursuit. Kells did not disappoint and soon led her back to the laboratory.

The place was empty bar the few hardy souls who were busy pursuing their own research projects.

Kells led Eve all the way to the currently unoccupied Scribe mess hall where she was greeted by Joe Westcott, a Paladin of some regard.

"Joe..," she chuckled. "Are we the last stragglers?"

The young man gave his superior a rueful grin. "Like always, ma'am."

"Well, best not keep them waiting. After you."

Eve watched the pair disappear behind a false wall at the very back of the room. After it had sealed behind the pair, Eve sneaked her way to the entrance and examined the strange device that moved the heavy concrete with ease before following her targets with the wall sliding shut behind her.

* * *

The tunnel she slipped into was dark. Ominously so with no light bar the one that flickered beneath a closed door at the very end.

It also descended downwards at a steep angle, leaving Eve in no doubt that they were going a floor below the mess hall's level.

She moved slowly and methodically, careful to keep her footsteps silent as she crept to her goal.

She gently opened the door a fraction, peering in and assessing what lay beyond it. Once she was certain she could move, Eve forced it open enough just to slip her body though and quickly started into a crawl.

It opened into a large warehouse – empty of everything except toppled over and rusting shelving alongside towers of wooden pallets and crates.

Eve vaguely recalled her father recounting to her the story of how they found the Citadel and what was there when they did. Clearly this was one of the many storage rooms that they'd discovered, empty now as the contents had been moved to a more secure location.

The door opened on a metal walkway high above the floor which afforded her a bird's eye view of the meeting going below. They'd clearly meet here many times before considering the tables and chairs set up in the center.

Eve felt more than heard the approach of something from along the hall she'd just arrived from. She quickly activated her last stealth-boy, rolling desperately to the side as the door opened.

Casdin, in his heavy power armor, burst in unconcernedly and immediately set off down the wobbling metal stairs.

Eve, in her haste, had nearly rolled off the metal walkway altogether and now desperately held on by her fingertips as each footstep Henry took shook the platform she gripped violently. She was running out of time. After glancing below at the drop, Eve started to swing her body to the right before she let go, aiming her fall to land on the last few crates piled against the wall.

She landed with a loud "oof!" and the cracking of wood and metal. Luckily, Henry Casdin's journey to the meeting was noisier and concealed her presence.

Eve scrambled into cover just before her stealth-boy finally died.

Her heart was pounding while her skin gleamed with sweat. After taking a few breaths to steady herself, Eve sneaked her way to the round-table discussion that was taking place.

* * *

"So it's not confirmed then," Henry barked as he paced in his armor, the only one who was not seated and clearly refused to do so.

"We shouldn't be surprised," Westcott replied. "Her sister was the same. Similarly hard to get rid of."

"But we did get rid of Sarah Lyons," came the pithy reply. "And remember it took that bitch being unaware for us to succeed. Heh... I still remember her surprise when her team abandoned her in the field to the tender mercies of the mutants. This little waste-lander is likely no longer as ignorant as her sister was back then."

Diana Kells sighed. "Of what, Henry? What could she possibly know? The bodies we found were burned beyond recognition and the autopsies will not give us any information until at least late tomorrow. She could be among the dead already. Even if she lives, we've hidden our involvement well."

"She isn't dead!" Henry hissed. "I know it. She's just like her father. More like Owyn than Sarah ever was. And that man was impossible to kill. It took nature to sort that out for us."

"You need to calm down," Lori Becker, another of the current Elder's council remarked dully. "This paranoia of yours is tiresome. The girl is dead – whether one of those torched in that shelled building or a walking corpse on her feet. We have eyes everywhere and all are ordered to kill her on sight."

Casdin finally calmed enough to stop his frantic pacing. "We're so close to taking control. The boy will listen to us once she's gone. A perfect figurehead with the right name to bring them all around to the truth."

"Very confident of that," Diana remarked drily. "He didn't listen to you before or even now. Too idealistic. The Lyons family did that to him. Hell... the only reason he gave up the old man's grand designs was to save his little crush."

Henry snorted. "Heh. And now the Lyons family are gone, including that girl. Maxson will listen or he'll die like his own parents. Like how his mother did. She nearly ruined everything by sending the boy across the country. As if Lyons could have have saved him like she wanted."

* * *

Nate glanced at Arthur who had let out an involuntary huff of air as that snippet of information hit him almost as a physical blow.

* * *

"The boy will come around. No more Lyons to whisper in his ear. We can make him into what we need," Casdin added gruffly.

Eve had sank into a crouch as the talk continued at the table. She barely took it all in as she thought of Sarah... of how she'd been devastated when they'd brought back her body from the battlefield. Of how she'd wept bitterly when alone with Arthur.

She stifled a choking sob into silence as Arthur flickered in her mind. She thought of his parents too. She needed to find out the truth of what happened to them.

* * *

Nate glanced at Maxson who was fixated on the scene before him.

"Sir... what did they mean by you saving Eve?" he queried, not willing yet to touch on what was clearly upsetting subject of his parents.

His Elder barely spared him a glance. "Henry Casdin, Diana Kells and Lori Becker were all members of a splinter group from the Brotherhood. They called themselves Outcasts. Elder Lyons had always regretted the division that happened between them and the main Brotherhood forces. When I became Elder, the West Coast demanded reunification. The first thing Henry wanted as part of the deal was a complete reversal of what had been our policy since Owyn's time in charge. He wanted us to go back to the old ways of tech hording, of isolation from the wastelanders. Of serving our interests first."

"You disagreed?" Nate asked almost hopefully.

Maxson glanced at him. "I did to a lot of what he demanded. But... I had no choice. We were not as strong as we once were. We'd lost so many experienced soldiers and needed to recover numbers quickly. And there were considerations."

"Eve," Nate said quietly, recognizing the answer before the younger man could verbalize it.

"... I had promised him. I promised him faithfully."

"Who?" Nate asked.

"Owyn Lyons. He was dying," Maxson said quietly with ears and eyes fixated on the past Eve who was couched and clearly in some emotional distress behind some boxes. "He wanted me to make sure that she was safe. I wouldn't have let anything happen to her anyway. The West Coast and the Outcasts wanted her expelled from the Brotherhood. I refused but had to make concessions in other areas."

"Eve doesn't seem like someone unable to take care of herself, Elder."

"Look at them," Arthur replied sourly. "Tell me if you believe that they'd let the last Lyon, the last of her family who they despised walk away from the Citadel free. My duty is to the Brotherhood, to keeping it strong. That doesn't mean I don't have wishes of my own."

The conversation died suddenly as this past Eve got to her feet with knife firmly gripped in her hand. The strange mix of grief and fear had passed, faded now behind a look of steel.

"That's the Eve I remember," Arthur breathed out in a whisper, so low that Nate almost didn't believe he'd said it.

* * *

Her mind was set. Eve couldn't fight them all at once. At least not with Casdin in his armor backing them up. She needed to break them apart.

She quickly slipped back towards the entrance-way she arrived though. Once near the stairway, Eve quickly dug around in her pocket. Once her hand found what she was looking for and held it in a firm grip, she quickly glanced backwards at the small meeting still going on.

Eve picked up a stray rusty tin-can and fired it at Lori Becker. It struck the woman on the side of the head, causing her to fall off the chair she was rocking back and forth on lazily while snapping the attention of everyone else on her.

* * *

"GET HER!" Casdin roared as Eve bolted through the shelves, keeping low as she scurried along the maze.

Becker, now recovered from her fall, and Westcott set off to find her while Casdin grabbed Kells' arm and dragged her to the stairway back up.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"We're going to make sure that girl doesn't get to use what's upstairs against us! You know what I speak of."

Kells needed no more encouragement and bolted for the door leading back to the laboratory.

* * *

Westcott stayed calm. Becker was somewhere out there too, silent as he was as they both crept through the darkened room.

He kept his rifle at the ready and each step was taken with great care.

But he never thought to look upward.

Eve fell down upon him, slicing through the back of his neck with ease before bringing the blade upwards in one smooth motion.

Westcott died instantly but not silently. Eve had only a few seconds to grab what equipment she could before...

She screamed as a bullet tore through her flesh. Eve dived through a small gap that led to a larger aisle and took off running with one hand clamped over the hole in her side.

Becker was still firing indiscriminately as Eve, now in a safer spot, reviewed the damage. To her relief, the wound, although painful, was only a nick and not something more dangerous. She was losing blood but not as much if the bullet had hit a more vulnerable target.

She still needed to take out the increasingly enraged Becker who was firing at shadows in a pattern that kept Eve pinned down. She glanced around desperately before spotting something she could use.

* * *

Becker finally stopped shooting. As the gun cooled in her hands and she reloaded, the older woman glanced out from her cover and spotted her target. The girl seemed to unaware that Becker had her in sight as she crouched on a low shelf.

She couldn't miss this opportunity. She dashed out and immediately started to shoot only to be dumbfounded when the bullets were met with the shattering of glass and not the screams of pain she expected.

An ominous creaking started and Becker had no time to react as the tall shelving unit that had been precariously held against the wall started to sway before falling towards her.

Eve stepped painfully out from where she'd hidden herself just in view of the now destroyed mirror and walked over to the trapped and dying Becker who glared at her hatefully from where she lay crushed beneath the rusting metal.

"I want to know... about Jessica Maxson," Eve barked before she stood on top of the unit, earning a long wheeze and cry of pain from Becker.

"Nothing to tell!" the woman roared back.

"Liar. You're dying, Becker. I can make it quick if you let me know about Jessica Maxson. About what you did to her. Otherwise..." Eve slipped a stimpak out from her pocket, "... this is gonna take a very long time indeed."

"She was like you," Becker spat at Eve. "Thought she knew what was best. Her and her idiot husband. Sent her son away to hide him from us."

"Clearly that didn't work. Why do you need Arthur?"

"We don't need him," Becker snorted. "We need his name."

Eve suddenly frowned. "Why are you tel- shit!"

She dived off the laughing woman before running full pelt down the aisle away from her.

* * *

The heat. The unbearable heat before the shock-wave tossed her like a rag-doll among churning shrapnel and fire.

When Eve finally managed to drag herself painfully out of the rubble, the mini-nuke's mushroom cloud was dissipating while the fires still burned.

She could feel the shards of metal lodged in her burned and swollen back with the clothes she wore burned and torn.

Small mercies, she mused to herself as how close she'd gotten to being killed hit her.

As she watched, the small fires started to rage out of control and began barrelling upwards to the ceiling while being fueled by wooden crates that littered the floors.

"Fuck..." she hissed before dragging herself back up the stairway.

* * *

By the time she managed to reach the laboratory, the fire had gotten there before her and was now in full flight. It gushed through the facility, sucking the very air almost from her lungs with the heat.

The Citadel was in panic mode. The Scribes were desperately operating what limit firefighting equipment they had while she could Arthur's voice across the intercom calling for all hands to help fight the flames that threatened to consume not just the lab but the entire Citadel itself.

Eve managed to find a large enough cloth to act as a mask before she took a bottle of purified water from a shelf and doused the fabric thoroughly. Once tied around her nose and mouth, Eve made her way through the fire and smoke.

People ran past her unaware of who it was as they fought the flames that was starting to eat away at the supporting structures. Eve, following her gut more than anything else, went back to where she'd first heard that conversation between Casdin and Kells.

Her hunch was proven right as she arrived to the pair destroying some older data units she recalled as having been brought to the lab by the Outcasts while they'd existed.

"You..." she snarled through the wet cloth, unaware of how terrifying she looked with blackened flesh on her back, singed blonde hair covered in ash and blood soaked clothes.

Kells muttered to Casdin, "Continue the work, Henry. She's mine."

As he smashed the last unit to pieces, Kells charged to Eve.

* * *

"Your sister would have given me a better fight!" Diana roared into Eve's face as the younger woman was grabbed by the throat and unceremoniously shoved into a wall.

She bit back the squeal that wanted to erupt as her burned back grated against the metal. Instead, Sarah's training years before took over.

She stopped focusing on the hands that choked her and instead lashed out with a sharp jab that hit Diana in the more delicate spots that few thought of. One hit caused her arm to weaken by hitting the nerves in her elbow while another caused it to lose its strength altogether.

As Eve landed on her feet, she didn't have time to catch her breath as it descended into a fistfight.

Kells had a right hook like a freight train and it was unerringly accurate.

One good connection broke Eve's nose with blood spurting out in a river. She shook off the pain and continue the war.

She wasn't good enough to go toe-to-toe to win this she realized as exhaustion was overtaking her while Kells taunted her with the ease at which she tore through Eve's defenses. At any point, Diana Kells could win this. Right now she was playing with Eve.

"Then cheat," said a voice from her past in her mind.

"Nanna," Eve hissed before she took her brain's advice. She lashed out sharply with a foot and kicked Kells hard in the crotch which caught her completely by surprise. Before she could gather her thoughts, Eve had grabbed Kells' head and snapped it hard to the right.

Kells collapsed to the ground motionless as her last breath escaped in a rush.

* * *

"Huhhhh," Eve huffed as pain flooded through her shoulder.

Blood began pouring from the gunshot wound that suddenly appeared there. She hadn't even heard a gun go off.

Eve turned awkwardly only to find herself face to face with Casdin in his power armor. The gun in his hand was all she needed to know it was him who'd shot her.

"Pity about Diana," he hissed. "But seeing you die will be worth all the losses."

Eve shot forward in rush and slipped under his legs, acting on instinct more than thought. Henry snapped out a hand and tried to grab her but failed.

She lept onto his back causing him to throw himself backwards in an effort to crush her against the nearest wall.

It seemed to Nate to be like watching a rodeo with Eve holding on and Casdin trying to get rid of her.

Finally, she slipped off him entirely, almost flung in fact as she loosened her grip. Casdin attempted to advance on her weakened body that was just getting back off the floor when he noticed the power draining from his suit.

Eve got to her feet unsteadily and waved what had been his fusion core at him.

"Damn it!" he snapped but before he could exit the dying armor, Eve charged him again with all her strength. She kicked the hulking machine off balance and let it land on its back, trapping Casin inside.

Henry was roaring now. In anger, in rage... in hate. But Eve, the object of his fury, was cold. Her body was bleeding out fast with the gunshot to her shoulder hurting her the most. Death was coming for her. Of that she was certain.

But she wouldn't go without taking Henry with her. Eve threw the fusion core she'd ripped from Henry's power armor into the raging fire that was burning through the walls behind her fallen enemy and closed her eyes.

* * *

The explosion came, drowning out everything else. But it didn't kill her. It didn't even kill Henry as the last she saw of him was the man squealing like a trapped pig as the flames swallowed him up where he lay within the metal suit.

Eve herself was blasted by the shockwave, which raced ahead of the fire, out the broken windows and into the cold night air. She plummeted in a angle towards the lazy Potomac river who soon swallowed her up in its cold wet embrace.

Eve barely remembered what happened in the hazy minutes after it, only that she was resigned now to death with no strength left in her body.

The suffocation had started and she was almost about to desperately try to breath in even knowing it was not air but irradiated water that would flow into her lungs.

She only opened her eyes as someone hurriedly lifted her out of the waters she'd sunken in to and the breath she desperately tried to stop took in the night air instead.

"It's okay!" the voice said. "I got you, Evie. Shit..."

Her rescuer hidden by the darkness but holding her broken body firmly in his grip, viewed the inferno that gripped the Citadel before deciding to slip out on the opposite bank.

Eve passed out from blood loss just as she felt the familiar pinch of a stimpak touch her neck.

* * *

When she next awoke, it was to warmth and flickering light.

Above her head, an old aluminum roof rattled with the heavy rain that pelted it. Her body ached but not as much as it had. She was swaddled in bandages while beside her on the crooked metal table dozens of empty stimpaks and bottles of Aqua Pura lay discarded.

Her gaze was drawn to the small fire that both lit up and kept warm the hut she was sheltered in. A familiar shadow she remembered from when she'd been younger sat cooking a meal over the flames. Eve, knowing now who it was that had come to save her, started to cry.

Her whimpers finally alerted her rescuer that she was awake.

"Hey," he gently called out before leaving his meal to bubble unattended over the fire and swiftly went to the old creaky bed Eve was resting limply on.

A large hand, scarred but gentle, cupped the bruised flesh of her cheek with it's thumb wiping away the stray tears that had escaped her swollen right eye.

Eve smiled through her pain, having to almost squinting through the dark of the hovel at her rescuer.

"How are you feeling?" The words came from a familiar face to her and to Arthur who visibly started at now seeing the man clearly.

She manged to reply, "Alive... I think... Never been so glad to see you. Where did you go?"

"I've been living up to my reputation and wandering," the deep voice replied. "But clearly I should have taken you with me when I did. I suppose I should be grateful I returned when I did, eh? What's happened here, Evie? What's happened since I've been gone?"

Just as Eve opened her mouth to reply, the memory ended.

* * *

Amari and Ingram, both working in tandem, started shut down the system which had overheated and need time to recover before starting to wake up Eve from her slumber.

"Who was that?" Nate asked Maxson who seemed a little taken aback at the last memory.

"The Lone Wanderer they called him," was the younger man's instant reply. "A man who helped Elder Lyons defeat the Enclave and who saved the Capital wasteland. His father created a device that purified water on a grand scale and it fell to the Brotherhood to ensure it's continued operation and that what it produced reached as many people as possible. It's a task that continues to this day."

"He's the man that saved her from slavery. He brought her across the wasteland to the Capital."

Arthur seemingly ignored him as he muttered, "She never talked about him. Never. Not once..."

* * *

"Sir... the trial..."

Maxson glanced at Paladin Crosse who'd interrupted his Elder's thoughts.

"What of it?"

"The jury have arrived at a decision."

Nate balked. "We've barely finished! There is more to be uncovered and verified!"

"Their decision was made long before this started, Sentinel," Maxson replied coldly. " Pronounce their judgement, Paladin."

Crosse flinched, almost unwilling to say the words to his Elder who stared intently at him. Finally, he muttered, "Guilty, sir."

"As it should be," Kells barked out as he joined the small group.

"From what I can see," Arthur replied to Kells, "I should be throwing you in the brig until this business involving your mother is clarified."

The Captain snorted. "Do it. My mother and her reputation will be vindicated by the truth. Not ruined by a murderer's falsehoods."

Nate left almost immediately after that line from Kells as he couldn't trust himself not to tear into the man blinded by family loyalty. He left the pair to argue while he rushed to help Eve who was struggling to focus her body and her mind now she was free of the machine.

"Hey... you okay?"

She let out a pained laugh. "Sort of. Have had worse days than this. Brain feels a little hazy."

Nate took a firm grip of her arm, lifting her back onto her feet.

"Eve... I... The things you went through..."

* * *

"Step away from the prisoner, Sentinel!"

Nate glanced at Kells who arrived with an armed escort.

"And why should I, Captain?" he snarled back.

"Because she's being returned to her cell. At first light tomorrow morning, she'll be executed for her crimes."

"And what about you? Brig for you too I hope?"

"I've been relieved of my duty bar this last one," the captain replied angrily. "Until this mess can be verified as falsehoods by a traitor. At which point, I expect an apology for that comment, Sentinel."

Eve didn't seemed surprised. She gave Nate a weak smile before being dragged away.

For his part, Nate immediately thought of arguing it with Maxson only to find that he'd disappeared.

"Where is the Elder?" he quickly asked Ingram who shrugged.

"He left a short time ago. Had that look on his face which usually means he's off to beat the hell out of a punching bag. Best leave him be, Sentinel. Too much going on. The rest of the crew are going to need you and Maxson more than ever now. When news of what was shown today gets out... let's just say it won't ease tensions."

* * *

Nathan waited and pondered. He thought of so many things, not least the world he came from and the strange one he found himself in.

He thought of Nora and how proud he'd been of her for becoming a lawyer. She dreamed of setting to right the world's evils.

And here he was... centuries later and about to break a criminal out of jail.

Shortly after the sun had set on a buzzing Brotherhood base, Nate made his move. No one questioned why he'd be visiting Eve's cell with the guard on duty saying that he'd expected him earlier considering how many had visited in the days previous. Now she was completely alone.

Only... she wasn't. Shortly after he stepped inside, Nate spotted a hooded man who was lifting an unconscious Eve out of her cell – a dart clearly jutting free from her neck.

Before he could react, Nate felt a sharp sting in his arm as he was spotted by the same who quickly reacted by hitting him with the same type dart he'd used on the woman in his arms.

"Sssshhit..." he mumbled before collapsing into a pile on the floor.

"My apologies... Sentinel," a familiar voice said lowly to him as Nate slipped into unconsciousness.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Duty or Desire

"This is becoming a bad habit, Nate," Cade chuckled.

"Ugh. Don't remind me," his patient groaned as a headache which he'd received from the sedative-laced dart that had put him to sleep finally started to throb.

"Need those painkillers now?" Cade asked after watching Nate's face scrunch up as his brain seemingly threatened to escape his skull.

"Absolutely!"

As Cade searched his bag for the medication, Nate's hurting mind finally kicked into gear.

"I take it Elder Maxson must know at this stage that Eve is gone?"

"Young Arthur Maxson is currently missing."

Nate blinked. "Sorry... what?"

"We're not wholly concerned just yet," Cade added with no hint of concern. "He's been known to take a few hours to himself and go strolling around the countryside with no particular goal in mind. His duty can weigh heavily on him. I believe that sometimes he just needs to get away from it all. Used to cause such panic back in the Capital Wasteland when he'd wander off. But we've gotten used to his odd habits since then."

Nate managed to sit upright at long last just as his memory kicked into gear.

"... Shit! What the hell was he thinking?!"

"Sentinel?"

"Just remembering something," he mused to Cade as another voice rumbled in his mind - _My apologies... Sentinel._

"Who is in command in Maxson's absence?" Nate barked.

"That would be you."

Nate blinked. "Sorry?"

"Captain Kells has been temporally relieved of command. The next highest rank is you."

"God damn it!" he snapped. Ignoring the blinding headache which was only starting to subside, Nate got to his feet and set out for the doorway.

"Where are you going?" Cade shouted after him.

"To find Eve and her idiot rescuer!" Nate roared back before he added offhandedly in an almost strained voice, "If Maxson turns up while I'm gone, tell him I need to speak to him."

"Oh, I must certainly will."

* * *

It was the dead of night as Nate attempted to track down the pair who'd escaped.

He wasn't the only one on their trail. A number of Brotherhood vertibird sorties were swarming the skies while ground patrols searched every building in the effort to locate Eve.

After an hour pf no luck, Nate stopped and pondered.

If it was who he suspected that took Eve then he needed to think like him. He needed to consider everything that he would when making such a move.

"Got it!" Nate muttered as it finally struck him where they had obviously gone.

He started back for the shoreline just behind Eve's cell.

"Of bloody course," Nate hissed as he knelt at the tracks and the familiar drag of a small jetty which led to the sea.

Maxson had obviously been planning this. There was no other way that he'd have a ready boat here waiting. The only thing he didn't do right was clear the trail behind him although an attempt had been made at that.

Nate practically growled. Idiot boy he thought. Maxson's young age was starting to show. He could have come to Nate and told him his plan. He would have helped. But who could the boy trust in the Brotherhood when you considered everything which had only recently been revealed? Nate knew the answer that Arthur had come to.

Eve.

Maxson trusted Eve and now he was helping her escape while his chapter thought he was off wandering the surrounds to clear his head.

After quickly scanning the far coast, Nate took a best guess at where his Elder would go with an unconscious Eve and headed for the ruins of the General Atomics factory he could just about make out on the distant and dark shoreline.

* * *

The swim was long, hard and cold. Nate couldn't feel his hands as he emerged from the waters.

His guess was pretty good he mused after spotting a small battered boat that appeared to have been recently scuttled and now only partially protruded from the shallower waters.

Nate had to think about this. Maxson would lay low until the initial search had eased off. He knew how the Brotherhood mechanisms worked. Hell, he'd built them in the first place.

The large factories themselves were a write-off. Too big and bulky. Too obvious.

But... just to the south-west was the brewery normally staffed with super mutants. The Brotherhood would not normally think to check there as why would anyone choose to take on the normal residents as they attempted an escape.

Nate stepped up his pace, desperate to fight off the cold that was seeping into his bones.

The cloudless night sky didn't help him keep warm. It also didn't help that the Gwinnett Brewery had recently been heavily decorated by the mutants who'd lived there with the leftovers of their hapless victims which caused a very different type of chill to run through him.

One thing that Nate agreed on with Maxson was their extermination alongside raiders and ghouls. Not all ghouls he mused to himself. But they all turn eventually Nate thought darkly. Even Hancock one day would start to lose his mind. Or at least it was assumed.

They had talked about it once. Hancock, during a particularly somber talk, had asked that if it happened during Nate's lifetime would he be the one to put him out of his mindless misery. He'd agreed to the task. This was of course before he'd found his place with the Brotherhood and with it had come the many disagreements he had with Hancock.

* * *

The brewery had one lone mutant apparently standing as a sentry when he arrived. A few minutes of watching caused Nate to believe that it was not as it seemed. The mutant didn't move. He could hear disjointed talking but no movement.

A few minutes of watching caused Nate to believe that it was not as it seemed. The mutant didn't move. He could hear disjointed talking but no movement.

He stepped closer and found the creature dead. It had been propped up against a chair and railing to appear alive. By its side was a small holotape player that was set to repeat a string of phrases that were clearly meant to be taken as being from the dead super mutant. In the darkness and from a distance, this was enough to dissuade most travellers from investigating.

He stepped inside.

Dead mutants were piled up in most rooms, with some clear burn marks from laser weapons.

Or at least a laser Gatling, Nate thought as he stepped over the heavily damaged body of a mutant overlord.

The trail of dead led to the roof to his surprise. He'd have thought Maxson would have holed up inside the building itself.

He quickly made his way to the roof where he found his quarry.

* * *

A small fire crackled in the upper office, it's light carefully shielded from view by large metal sheets which had been dragged into place over what had been large empty windows.

Nate had barely taken a step towards it when the cold press of a gun touched his neck.

"I underestimated you, Sentinel."

"And I completely misread you, Arthur. I'm not here to turn you in. I'm here to help."

The gun wavered before it pulled back. Nate turned around to face Maxson who carefully holster the pistol he never really used. The laser Gatling he'd used to clear the floors below was within easy reach on his back.

"I apologize. For what happened in the prison. I didn't have time to explain."

"And knocking me out was the smart thing?"

Arthur almost shrugged. "The quickest certainly."

"Where's Eve?"

Maxson merely strolled past him and led the way to the small office.

As Nate stepped in after him, he spotted the fire he'd heard contained to one side of the small unit. It lit up the dark within and gave very welcome heat back to Nate's bones.

Just to the other side, Eve was stretched out still asleep. She rested on an old mattress that Maxson had covered over with some sheeting while she herself was in a blanket.

"Not awake yet?"

"She had a heavier dose than you," Maxson replied. "Cade assured me that she'll be awake in few hours."

"Cade, huh?"

Maxson took a seat on a rickety chair next to where Eve slept.

"He is a loyal man. Loyal to the Lyons family and my own."

"I don't doubt since he lied to me about you being off on a walk of the wasteland."

Maxson half-chuckled. "Not strictly a lie."

* * *

Nate sank down and sat on the floor not far from the fire. "What's your plan then? Tell me you're not just winging this."

"We're getting to the Commonwealth Brotherhood. Once Eve's awake, she'll take us to them and I'll consider what needs to be done with Elder Lyons."

"Why did you knock her out at all?" Nate almost laughed.

"She... she was argumentative. Refused to leave with me. I went to Cade afterwards for the tranquilizers."

"Thank god I'm not you because when she's awake you're going to hear about it."

"Heh. I know. Sentinel... you understand why I have to do this?"

Nate shrugged. "The Brotherhood you have been part of and thought you knew is not what you thought it was. What you'd believed it was. And they tried to kill someone you loved. I murdered the man who took my wife and son from me. I'm more surprised you've kept your cool as much as you have."

Maxson stared at him in surprise before he nodded carefully.

"Thank you."

"For?"

"Tolerating my bullshit as Eve has said on numerous occasions."

Nate started to laugh. "Well, I'll wait until Eve wakes up to hear her say it in person. What time do we move out?"

"Hopefully before dawn. Once Eve is back on her feet, we'll make our move."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Next Steps

"I can't fucking believe what you've done," Eve snapped again, almost speaking just to herself at this stage as her two taller and bulkier companions just kept on walking.

Nate kept himself a few steps ahead of Eve and Maxson, the pair walking almost in lock step together since they started out as Eve made her displeasure in Maxson's actions extremely clear.

"As you have said repeatedly from the moment you woke up. I think I've gotten the message at this stage," Maxson's voice finally rumbled in reply to Eve's exasperating complaints.

"Don't think for one second I'm shutting up about this!"

"Please continue then and drag every flea bitten mongrel, raider and mutant within the vacinity to our location," Maxson quipped back just as fast.

Nate winced, waiting for the sharp reply, but was surprised to find that Eve apparently took those words to heart and didn't answer back.

* * *

He took this opportunity to intervene and came to a complete stop.

Nate spun around to face his disgruntled companions. Maxson seemed as impassive as always while Eve was glowering intently.

"Sooooo... I'm sure this conversation has a lot longer to go but you both need to save it for later. We need to make a plan here. Eve, how can we get in touch with your crew?"

She wrinkled her nose a little. "I'd originally planned on using the transmitter of a downed Vertibird to call in for pick-up after escape."

"Oh? You planned on escaping? And yet I've had to deal with your constant complaining from the moment you woke up this morning about setting you free!" Maxson suddenly snapped.

Eve immediately launched into another tirade. "The plan didn't include you running off from the chapter, Arthur!"

"And you would disappear with Owyn?"

Silence fell once more and Eve, finally speechless, swallowed nervously.

Nate could see Maxson's jaw twitching even under the beard. The younger man finally turned and addressed Nate directly.

"Sentinel, forgive me but I need to talk to my wife in private for a moment."

"Wife?!" Nate squeaked before pausing on the flood of questions that were about to tumble out after as Maxson raised his hand in a strange plea.

"Just a moment. Please," the younger man added before he caught the silent Eve by the arm and dragged her unresistant form a short distance away from Nate to speak in relative privacy.

* * *

Nate watched as the pair spoke quietly with each other, Eve with a bowed head as if she couldn't bear looking at Maxson's face.

For his part, Arthur had removed the glove from his left hand and Nate could see the distinct glint of gold around the second last finger.

That hand lazily showed itself to the bowed Eve who squeezed her eyes shut as if hoping to block it out until the hand raised up and cupped her cheek, dragging her face upwards to meet Maxson's gaze.

Suddenly she jolted forward, wrapping her arms around Maxson's waist and burying her face in his chest.

Nate turned around at last, leaving them to their private moment as he dealt with the strange feelings of guilt he possessed at witnessing... almost intruding on them.

He took a seat on a older broken chair that was placed around the remains of a campfire he spotted. Recent he guessed from the still glowing embers.

Nate fetched a few twigs and stoked it back into life before placing more substantial fuel on it.

He sat and waited for what seemed like an age, enjoying the sparse heat and comforting glow of the fire.

"Sentinel... we should move on."

Nate snapped to his feet and gave a slight smile to Arthur who had Eve not far from his side.

"We can take a few minutes if you need it."

"Heh... I think we can save the rest of the talk until we're in a more secure location. We've gone through most of it," Eve replied carefully. "Come on. I know where we can call for pick up."

* * *

It wasn't long before they found a recent Vertibird crash-site with its crew long since rescued and returned to the Prywden.

Eve and Maxson worked in sync to rewire the just about functional distress beacon to the specs needed for the Commonwealth Brotherhood of Steel to register.

Nate stood back and watched them work.

The conversation they had earlier had clearly worked as there was no more snappy comments or tension between them. It had all disappeared under a easy companionship that Nate recognized with his heart breaking as he thought of Nora.

Once things had settled in the Commonwealth, Nate was determined to find some quiet plot in Sanctuary and he'd take her body from where it was currently locked frozen in its cryo pod and give her a proper funeral. The funeral he couldn't give their son.

It wasn't long after the beacon activated that a Vertibird appeared on the horizon with a familiar passenger on-board.

"Synth!" Maxson barked as he reached for his gun.

"Stand down, idiot!" Eve snapped in reply as she stepped over to Danse. "It's good to see you! Fast pick-up too."

Danse wearily watched Maxson as he replied, "We've been on alert since we got word of the judgement. It's good to see you too, Evie."

She laughed softly before murmuring, "Get back inside. I'll deal with this."

Eve glanced at Nate and nodded her head to motion him to board too before she faced the battle ready Arthur.

"You can come too, Arthur... once you stop with the theatrics."

"He's a synth! An abomination of technology!"

"And he's our friend, remember? I need you to trust me, Arthur. I need you to realize that no matter how he was created, in the end Danse is still human. We removed the built in devices that controlled his thoughts. He's free to choose his own path and his heart still lies with the Brotherhood. Look, I get it. We have killed thousands of synths and will likely destroy many more. But those who choose... those who want to join us, we help them to be free and find their humanity. Come on... " Eve reached out with a steady hand. "... let me show you what I mean. Owyn is waiting too you know. Waiting for his family to return... just like you have all this time."

Nate and Danse watched the confrontation from the relative safety of the Vertibird before both were surprised as Maxson, having swallowed his pride, holstered the Gatling he'd drawn out.

He reached out and took Eve's hand before following her on-board the aircraft.

Danse slammed the door closed after them before barking at the pilot, "Get us out of here."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Elder

Nate chatted eagerly with Danse on the trip back. Eve even joined in to the happy energetic conversation with a few witty quips every now and then.

Maxson however... Maxson kept one hand on his weapon and leveled a gaze so dark at Danse that Nate seriously believed he was attempting to kill the synth with his mind.

"Please... stop this," Eve eventually murmured quietly to Maxson who barked out a loud reply of, "I'm only tolerating the synth's existence so I may see my son. Nothing more"

Eve attempted to place a hand in a comforting way on his arm only to have it swatted away unceremoniously.

"Save your pandering for someone who needs it," Maxson snarled, gaze still set on Danse who avoided direct eye contact.

Nate saw the hurt that flickered briefly over Eve's face but she said nothing. She merely pulled her hand back and settled in her seat.

The silence that fell in the aftermath was only broken by the pilot informing them of their arrival.

* * *

Elder Lyons greeted them on arrival and immediately went to his fellow Elder.

"Well... young Arthur Maxson. You certainly look the part of a Maxson although you have your mother's eyes I believe. I remember your grandfather and father. Good men. And I've heard much the same about you. It's an honor."

"Elder Lyons. I can say much the same about you. Owyn and Sarah often spoke of you and I can see that the legends were true if you've managed to wrest this place from the Enclave and keep it. However I don't particularly care for the company you seem to keep these days," Maxson immediately replied, directing that last sentence at Danse after having stepping off the aircraft behind him, always keeping the synth in front and within sight.

Eve was about to rebut when Jericho answered with a simple nod, "I know how you feel. Been through it too. Come. We must talk in private, you and I. We have much to discuss. My brother spoke of you often and with great admiration. I've no doubt that you are everything he claimed you were."

He gestured to Arthur to head down the hall, stopping Eve as she attempted to follow.

"You have other things to attend to, Sentinel. Elder Maxson and I need to speak alone."

"But-"

"No buts. Go and fetch young Owyn, Eve. He's been a little lost without you and I'm sure his father would like to see him once more. After our meeting of course."

Jericho strolled off and met Arthur who had stopped a short distance away before leading him on-wards.

Nate glanced at Eve who was dumbstruck.

"You okay?"

"I just... he's cut me out."

"They need to speak in private," Danse replied to her. "That's their prerogative as Elders."

The look on Eve's face spoke volumes of how she was feeling. "I'm gonna go find Owyn. I'll see you two later."

* * *

"Aren't you even a little curious, Danse?"

It had been two hours since the two Elders had locked themselves into Jericho's office and showed no sign of exiting just yet.

Eve had fetched her son before she joined Nate and Danse in one of the canteens with a happy Owyn.

"No, Eve. I'm certain we'll know what they're discussing soon enough."

Nate glanced at Eve who was leaning back in her chair with Owyn lounging in her lap.

"You seemed pretty irate earlier," he said. "Upset at Jericho?"

"I've been too used to being my uncle's confidante," Eve sighed. "Not used to him just... sending me away. Felt a little like I was being put in my place."

"That's not what happened," Danse rebuked sharply, surprising both Nate and Eve with the tone. "Jericho would not do this unless he had a very good reason for it."

Nate spotted a look on Danse's face. "You have an idea... spill it!"

"Merely speculation," the synth replied.

"Spill it!" Eve pressed. "Tell us what you think!"

"I think... that Jericho is lining up his successor."

Nate and Eve both stopped.

"You both know that Jericho is old. He's not going to live forever and whoever takes over here needs to be the right choice. I think he's talking to his fellow Elder, another with the same burdens he has to carry, over it and the situation at hand. I know I would if I was in Jericho's position."

Nate blinked. "I gotta admit... that's a pretty good guess."

Eve said nothing at all and instead squeezed Owyn a little tightly in her arms.

A young man with a shock of dark blonde hair and in the robes of a scribe rushed up to the table.

"Hey Mason," Eve greeted warmly. "Nate, this is Mason. He's our resident genius alongside his father."

Mason blushed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Ehhh not so much a genius. Jericho wanted to let you know that the meeting is over. Elder Maxson will be arriving here shortly."

"Okay... wait! Did he call you to tell you that?"

"I was in the meeting. Me and my father."

Eve blinked. "Sorry? You and your father?"

Mason nodded. "Yeah. Called by Jericho about an hour ago. Look, I gotta go! There's gonna be so much to do and little time to do it! Call to the lab later!"

The young man took off at a run.

"I think your speculation may be off," Nate murmured to Danse.

* * *

True to Mason's word, Maxson arrived to the canteen accompanied by Jericho. Both were somber looking but Maxson perked up when he spotted the little boy locked in Eve's arms.

He knelt down beside her and smiled as Owyn pulled at his beard. Jericho took a seat at the table.

"Well... we've had a very productive meeting," the older man said cheerily. "We all need to talk. There's a lot to be done and it's gonna take all of us working together."

Eve gently let go of Owyn, letting Arthur take the unresistant boy into his arms as he stood upright.

She leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. "What's going on?"

Jericho beamed at her. "We're going to take this place over. The whole damn thing."

"Sorry?"

"We're taking the fight to the Enclave, Eve," Jericho clarified. "Together with our brothers and sisters from the Capital Wasteland. It's time. Time to end this."


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Unity

They sat almost haphazardly in Jericho's office.

The old man himself took the seat behind the impressive desk while Maxson had wheeled another chair near him, orienting it so he too sat facing the assembled personnel with a sleepy Owyn seated happily in his lap.

Eve and Nate sat nearest the front while Danse refused a seat and instead leaned back against a wall. Adding to the crew were a number of others that the newcomers were soon introduced too.

Lancer-Captain Baker who led the substantial air-fleet was present along with Head Scribe Combs, both of whom viewed the new arrivals with vague amusement. With them was the young Mason who joined Danse in his insistence at standing.

The last arrival, but certainly not the least, was Head Paladin Grimes. A tall broad ruddy colored man, he spoke bluntly with a thick Commonwealth drawl. Nate immediately liked him.

"Well... " Elder Lyons started, "Best we begin this otherwise we'll be here all day!"

He stood up from his chair and folded his hands behind his back.

"You all have been aware of the arrival of our fellow brothers and sisters from the Capital and of their victory over the Institute. I also know how celebrated this was by many here."

"Because it should have been us!" Grimes barked. "The Institute was a scourge. Should have been purged long ago. I gave you enough plans on how to do it, Elder."

Jericho sighed. "I know that, Grimes. We've had this talk many times but our mission here was the most vital."

"All I needed was thirty men! We could have done it!" Grimes nodded at Maxson. "No offense but you guys made a meal of it. Christ, we'd have been in and out without them knowing until the bomb went off."

"Grimes! Shut it! I want to hear the rest of this but so far all I hear is your yapping!" Eve barked.

"Fuck you too."

Eve lifted her hand above her head and showed Grimes her middle finger.

"Both of you shut it!" Jericho snapped. "I didn't expect to be shown up by two of my best in front of Elder Maxson!"

His crew settled down with Eve huffing out a breath before giving Owyn a smile as he beamed at her from behind his soother.

* * *

Elder Lyons pressed onwards with his intended talk.

"The plan is that we're gonna take back this entire facility. Every section. Not just this division. You know what that will entail. It's gonna be long and messy. Likely we'll lose a lot of good people. But this has to happen and happen now!"

Jericho deflated a little from his earlier rage. "I'm no fool. I know that my time on this planet is limited. I want to leave it knowing that it's in safer hands. I've been too cautious in some respects but now... now with the addition of Elder Maxson's chapter to our forces I believe we have a real chance to end the Enclave position here in the Commonwealth."

He stared out over the faces peering at him. "If we lose, the Enclave will set forth from the place in a tidal wave. Who could hurt them here where they are camouflaged by the fallout and miles of dirt. It's down to us. Only us. Now... before we can do this, Elder Maxson has to sort out a few things at home."

It was clearly his turn to speak as Arthur got readily to his feet with Owyn still clutched in his arms.

"I've come to believe that my chapter has been compromised by forces tightly linked to the Enclave. Before we can join with you in this important duty, I must return and purge my own ranks of the infection that has long been hidden from my sight. That is why I and my Sentinel will be departing at dawn tomorrow morning. Your Elder has graciously agreed to come to our aid if it's needed and I thank him for that."

Nate glanced at Eve, seeing the worry on her face as she stared at Arthur who returned to his seat.

"Well... lets get into the fine details then..." Jericho began.

* * *

By the time the meeting was over, Nate, the others and most especially Eve was drained.

The scale of what lay before them was immense. The first task was the restoration of Maxson's chapter, a mission that only Nate and Maxson would attempt alone at first.

If needed, the Commonwealth Brotherhood would come to their aid. Nate got the distinct impression that both Maxson and Lyons believed that would be necessary eventually.

In the meantime, Jericho's crew would be begin the hard work of preparing. Squads would be sent out to find supplies, weapons and ammunition along with scouting of any possible entry points. The planning of this mission lay squarely with them. At least until Maxson could rejoin with his own chapter once more under his full control.

"You seem worried," Nate rumbled in the quiet hallway where he waited along with Eve for Maxson who was still inside the office talking with Jericho.

"You both have a thankless task ahead of you,"she replied carefully. "A dangerous one too."

Nate smiled slightly. "You're still in love with him."

"I never stopped," Eve said back immediately. "I don't think I ever could stop. He... he was the only thing that kept me going once. I wanted to make him proud. Heh. Funny now."

"Why?"

"Just thinking back over everything. Funny how we've ended up. Me having betrayed him."

Nate shook his head. "You didn't though. And he knows that. I think he was looking for any excuse from the beginning."

"Hmm?"

"An excuse to let you go. There's love there too I think."

Eve gave a tight smile in return.

"If you don't mind me asking..." Nate murmured. "... when did ye two marry?"

His companion sighed. "Arthur demanded it back when I became pregnant. He thought that his family name might afford me some protection. It was a secret at first. Had to be at the time until we officially announced it to the others."

"Who married you?"

Eve bit back a smile. "It was Cade."

Nate almost laughed but stopped himself just as Maxson emerged from the office with Owyn still in his arms. He had refused to let the boy go from the moment he'd been reunited with him.

"Sorry for the delay."

"It's fine," Eve replied cheerily. "Ready to get some food."

"Absolutely," Arthur said as Owyn sniffled. "The both of us are."

* * *

Following a quiet meal which was mostly spent discussing what would need to be done, it was finally late enough for the small group to go their separate ways.

Throughout the small dinner, Maxson would be the most attentive to Owyn, fulfilling his demands for food and distraction while Eve could only sit it out and watch in wonder.

Nate finally began to understand Maxson's intense desire to make up for the lost time.

Family. He'd lost his own so young and being the last bearer of his family's name was something that clearly weighed on him.

As he got older, the realization had obviously struck him that if he wanted to belong to a family then he was going to have to make one for himself. And now he'd regained all that he'd thought lost.

Maxson was clearly determined to become the dominant male figure in Owyn's toddler world that he should have been from the moment he was born.

"Sentinel, Elder Lyons has assigned you some temporary quarters. Apparently the synth can show you to them," Maxson said as they stepped out from the canteen and into the halls. "I'd recommend a good night's sleep. We'll both need to be at our best for what comes next."

"Sure. What about you?"

"I'll be staying with my family."

Eve snapped her head around in surprise. "You're what?"

"I'll be staying with you and Owyn. Do you have any objections?" Arthur said with not one flicker of emotion.

"I-I... none. Just surprised."

"You shouldn't be. We'll see you tomorrow, Sentinel," Maxson pressed before he finally turned his attention to Eve. "Led the way."

The young woman gave Nate a warm smile. "See you tomorrow," she added before she set off down the hall with Maxson carrying Owyn in close pursuit.

"See you too," Nate replied with a grin as he watched them disappear.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Taking Their Leave

Nate had a restless night. His mind was full to bursting with the possibilities of what was to come – both good and bad.

When it reached the early hours of the following day, he pondered on whether Maxson was suffering in the same way he was.

Once it was a reasonable hour, he went in search of the Elder where he was holed up for the night which didn't take too long.

Eve's little spot was situated not far from where Nate had crashed fitfully. He quickly rapped out a knock and waited patiently for it to be answered.  
And patient he needed to be as it took another two knocks and a few minutes of waiting before the door slid open.

Maxson with ruffled hair and only his underwear on answered it. He stared bleary eyed at Nate who noticed the scratch-marks on his elder's neck and back.

"I was gonna ask if you had as rough a night as I did but I can see I don't need to ask," Nate chuckled. "Although you had fun with it at least."

Maxson blinked before he realized what Nate was referring too. "Forgive me," he stuttered out, cheeks flushing red before he quickly stepped back inside and waved at Nate to follow.

"Make yourself at home," he added before heading through a door that Nate presumed was to Eve's bedroom.

* * *

While Maxson was busy getting dressed, Nate poured himself a cup of coffee from the small dispenser in the kitchenette.

He almost felt transported back in time. This place was just what he would have expected before the war. The Enclave had obviously taken good care of this base while they held it. And now the Brotherhood could enjoy its creature comforts such as the coffee that Nate drank.

Maxson, this time more appropriately attired, emerged from the bedroom.

"Sentinel, I would appreciate if you would be silent on, ahem..."

"What you and your wife get up to is your business," Nate replied good-humoredly. "Don't be embarrassed, Elder. I was married too. Had my fair share of scratches."

He watched the wry smile on the younger man's face. "Thank you. I would prefer this to be kept quiet for now. Still working on persuading her."

Nate frowned. "Persuading? Eve?"

"She's wary of continuing as we had intended after all this time apart but I believe she is open to the possibility. Our marriage cannot be announced just yet. At least not until this mess is sorted."

"Of course. What time do we leave?"

"Now," Maxson said before he strolled to the only other door and peered in.

"Don't you want to say goodbye?"

Maxson didn't take his eyes off of what Nate suspected was the sleeping Owyn within the room. "I said them last night. They know how I feel," he said with a sigh before stepping away and heading to the main door. "Let's go, Sentinel. Our chapter needs our help."

* * *

The vertibird carrying them swooped low through the crackling dust and clouds of the Glowing Sea. Maxson stared out the window at the devastation the war had wrought and still caused.

"What was it like, Sentinel... this place before the war?"

Nate shrugged. "Pretty. Blue skies and green everywhere. It wasn't perfect but... this is hard. Seeing this. Knowing what was here before. We did this to ourselves. How insane is that..."

"Not insane. Uncontrolled technology, Sentinel."

Nate glanced at Maxson whose face had hardened.

"The technology advanced but we didn't. We were still the petty warlords but had in our hands the power to destroy worlds. And now the Brotherhood's task is clear. We have to save what's left of humanity from themselves. But I believe that one day we will be ready to wield technology correctly, Sentinel. I haven't given up on humanity."

"I know. That's why I joined you," Nate replied shortly. "When Se- when the Institute offered me the chance to be among them I never wavered from my belief that the Brotherhood was the best chance for all of humanity. They had given up on the wasteland, given up on the people who lived up there. I haven't. The Minutemen, the Brotherhood and all those people out struggling to get food on the table for their families and keep them safe... they proved to me that they deserve a brighter future. Elder... we need to think bigger."

"Oh?"

"We need to go back to Elder Owyn Lyons and what he did in the Capital Wasteland. The protection he afforded the people there."

"We are stretched thin on the ground as it is, Sentinel."

"But we wouldn't be if we brought on-board the Minutemen."

Maxson blinked. "Explain."

"The way I see it," Nate said rapidly, "we are the heavy hitters. We're the guys that go in when some rats nest of Super Mutants needs to be gutted. But the Minutemen could be trained and supplied to be the routine enforcers. If we tie in our resources, I believe we can remove the biggest threats to the settlements and keep that safety indefinitely."

"You mean use the Minutemen as a police force to deal with smaller dangers while we are the military arm that takes on everything else."

"We'd need to sort out a governance system and maybe start small. But I think if we apply it here successfully, we could expand it outwards. We would have to share certain resources but gain much more in return. Minutemen patrols could hunt down what we need for larger operations along with the protected settlements being more willing to share a portion of their harvests once they see the benefits. We would provide the muscle to keep them safe and keep the Minutemen suitable armed."

Maxson leaned forward, his interest now piqued. "Long term it would end up saving on resources while expanding our forces exponentially. But this is a talk for another time. We can discuss the future once we've secured it."

* * *

They were dropped off a short distance from the airport with their transport making a quick escape back to the Glowing Sea.

Before them the Prydwen gleamed in the morning sun and Maxson took a moment to appreciate the view before he turned to Nate.

"Once we get back I'll deal with the fallout of Eve's escape. I have a mission for you. One that involves Knight Travis. I need you to reach out to him in regards to that invitation he gave you. Say whatever you need to in order to gain his trust. Once you have some names and leads, we can start putting together the scale of the task before us. And perhaps figure out who are our true allies and who have been working against us."

Their subsequent return was relatively unnoticed.

Maxson and Nate's return to the Prydwen wasn't met with any fanfare. The Elder immediately went to Cade for a private conversation with the Commonwealth Brotherhood clearly being top of the topic list.

Nate made his way to the main quarters and to Knight Travis who smiled warmly as he approached.

"Sentinel! How can I help you?"


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Arthur

"A meeting then?"

Nate nodded, just making out his Elder's words from the familiar screech of the wind that accosted the deck of the Prydwen.  
"Travis was most insistent that I couldn't know the location of it. Apparently they have an informal gathering once every month or so and, until I'm a proven member of their club, I can't be allowed know the location. I've no other information than that."

A deep frown scrunched up into tight lines on Maxson's youthful face.  
"We'll have to go with it then as per their requirements. But I will speak with Cade and see if there is something we can have implanted that will make it easy for us to track you. Prepare yourself in the event that this meeting doesn't go quite as according to plan. In case Travis has any suspicions about you and fighting your way out may end up being the priority."

"Absolutely. He'll come to me at some point in the next few days. In the meantime I plan on solidifying my apparent difference of opinion from Brotherhood doctrine. It'll have to be public and you'll have to play your part too. I think it'll help no end if there's a public feud between us."

Maxson nodded and muttered, "Of course. I'll be waiting for it," before turning his attention once more out over the railings and out across the commonwealth. There was undisguised worry written all over his face.

"Any word from Evie?" Nate ventured.

"She... sent a short message. Through an intermediary that I had no idea about," Maxson huffed. "Apparently its not just the Enclave that have rooted themselves deeply within my chapter."

The younger man let out a long suffering sigh. "I guess I can't complain too much. The interlopers will be my only method of secure communication to her."

"What did she say? If you don't mind me asking."

"She's going out into the Glowing sea. Didn't say why. Just that Owyn will be safe at the base if I return before her. She... was afraid."

Nate blinked. "Eve? Fearful? Maybe you're just reading too much into the message."

"She wrote that she loved me."

"Normally not a sign of fear."

"It is for her. She would only say it if there was strong chance that she would not return. I know her, Sentinel. And she knows me. Something's happening back there in our absence."

"Do you need to go? We can make an excuse."

Maxson shook his head. "Whatever else is going on, Evie's trusting me to continue as planned. We have to clear this disease from our chapter before we can take the fight to them."

They stood quietly beside each other, each pondering their own thoughts while the wind continued to whip across the Prydwen's deck at speed and the distant sun started to set.

"Sentinel..."

"Yes, Elder?"

"Heh. I think you can call me Arthur by now."

Nate smirked. "And you can call me Nate."

"Well, Nate... do you feel up to joining me for a drink in my quarters? I don't particularly feel like I can trust my mind to stay focused alone."

* * *

Nate sipped the harsh whiskey, marveling that even after the fall of civilization itself humanity found a way to keep the alcohol industry going.

Maxson was slumped in the chair across from him with a glass of the same whiskey in one while the other tapped out a steady rhythm on the table.

"You seem distracted, Arthur. There's no shame in maybe stepping aside temporally? It's been a very eventful few days."

Maxson snorted. "In all honesty up to a few short days ago I had abandoned any hope of a future for myself. When Eve left, I choose to devote myself to the future of humanity. Even if that meant sacrificing my own happiness. Even if it meant never once having what others around me had. Families. Loved ones. The Brotherhood would be that for me. And now? Now I'm fighting the urge to drop all of my duties and just run back to the Glowing Sea. Run there and snatch Eve and Owyn and just... leave. Go somewhere far away from all of this. Find some plot of reasonable land and, I dunno... farm I suppose."

Nate chuckled. "Interesting dream."

"Do you think she'd come with me still? Be a simple farmer out in the wilds?" Maxson replied with a smirk.

Nate smiled warmly. "I think Eve would never leave your side again willingly."

"You know... I loved her for a very long time before we ever dreamed of breaking the invisible rules and actually doing something about it. Since before we'd even hit puberty if I was truly honest. Funny. To think on those times now. As soon as I had sprouted the first few hairs on my face and could sustain an erection they had me having as much sex as possible with young fertile women from good families that they selected. The Maxson name must live on I was told. My duty was to provide the heirs."

Nate didn't know what to say to this moment of candor from Maxson. "That doesn't sound healthy, Elder. In my era that would be called child abuse."

"It would be classified the same in this era, Nate. To be honest... it's very difficult for me to think on it. I try not to. I have more pleasant memories to recall."

Maxson smiled, the haunted look Nate saw in his eyes disappearing as he raised his glass in a toast. "To the good memories. What few I have."

* * *

After they toasted and each overcame the burning liquid that coursed down their throat, Nate carefully asked, "Were the attempts successful at least?"

"Four children over three years. A boy and three girls. The Elder Council had them ferried back west in hopes of protecting them," Maxson replied in a monotone voice.

"Wow. Four. And with Owyn that makes five kids out there. A lot for a young man like yourself."

"None of the others survived their journey. Death found them all either through sickness or they were slaughtered at their mother's breast by raiders."

Nate paled. "I'm sorry, Arthur. To lose children like that. To lose your own childhood like that because of... well, madness. Just madness."

"It's alright. The children were mine but not really. I was too young, too much of a child myself to fully comprehend. I just knew how they were made and what I needed to do make them. When the fourth was confirmed dead, I called a halt to it all. And instead they sent me a would-be wife that would protect the children she bore in situ. Not that plan worked out for them either. I got what I wanted which was Eve and then there was Owyn."

Maxson glanced at Nate with a grin. "It's a good name isn't it? Owyn Maxson. Better than Arthur for sure. A name to live up to. His grandfather was a great man. A better man than me certainly."

"A bit maudlin, Arthur. Owyn's won the lottery in the wasteland. He's got good parents."

"One good parent. I've yet to prove myself in that regard," Arthur chuckled. "But I will. Once this is all done. I've pondered long on what you said regarding the Minutemen when my mind hasn't been consumed with the more melancholy aspects of life. The Minutemen often come with thoughts of Owyn."

Nate frowned. "Oh?"

"There's something in your plan that's really caught my imagination. I think we can make it work, both for us and the wasteland. Re-purpose ourselves for a new age. I'd like that one day children like Owyn will be able to stay as children for longer, be able to play and chase each other outside the walls of their communities without fear from mutant or raider alike. That their families can share in that peace. We've tried as much as we can with what limited forces we can spare but checkpoints and clearing out infested buildings can only do so much."

Maxson turned his intense gaze on Nate fully, "And we may need the Minutemen's assistance far earlier than either of us believed. We need more allies than just the Commonwealth Brotherhood if we wish to stop the Enclave."

"I already have reached out, Elder. Just in case. If you'd like, I can arrange a meeting," Nate added with a brow raised.


End file.
